These essays further the interpretation of modern biblical study, but they also open windows on nineteenth- and twentieth-century German history, with an international view beyond. Adolf Deissmann (1866–1937) was professor of New Testament at Heidelberg and then (from 1908) Berlin. He has been famous internationally as a biblical interpreter and, with Nathan Söderblom, a builder of ecumenism after 1918. At home he was known also for his church loyalty and his share in public life, ultimately as Rector of the University of Berlin (1930–1).

Pauline mysticism was at the heart of Deissmann's religion and scholarship. He interpreted biblical texts as documents of piety rather than theology. His first book, on the phrase ‘in Christ’ (1892), urged that, when Greek usage was adequately assessed, Paul – in a development of his ancestral Jewish mysticism – could be seen to think of Christ as like an atmosphere in which we move and breathe. As noted here, this work influenced Albert Schweitzer and, more recently, the ‘new perspective’ on Paul associated with E. P. Sanders. Continuing to study Greek usage, and kindling a debate which still goes on, Deissmann showed dramatically how close the Septuagint and the New Testament were to the language of newly-discovered inscriptions and papyri. In a further step, he linked ‘non-literary’ Greek in the New Testament with what he judged to be the lower-class milieu of the first Christians.

These views appeared in books widely read abroad, such as his Bible studies: contributions chiefly from papyri and inscriptions to the history of the language, the literature and the religion of hellenistic Judaism and primitive Christianity (1895; English translation 1901) and Light from the ancient East: the New Testament illustrated by recently-discovered texts of the Graeco-Roman world (1908; rev. edn 1923; English translations 1910, 1927). Paul emerged as an artisan-mystic manifesting the distinctive piety of the Septuagint in St Paul: a study in social and religious history (1911; rev. edn 1925; English translations 1912, 1926). In the book under review Deissmann's close links with British scholars and ecclesiastics, from J. H. Moulton to Randall Davidson and G. K. A. Bell, appear especially in essays by D. Lange, A. Gerber, D. S. Du Toit, G. H. R. Horsley and C. Markschies.

In Germany meanwhile, including the Berlin of Wilamowitz and Harnack, Deissmann's approach found criticism from some within both Classics and Theology. As the editors note, his Berlin nickname ‘Adolphus mysticus’ was not always used in a complimentary sense. Deissmann had well-known pupils including Martin Dibelius and K. L. Schmidt, but his work was eventually overshadowed by that of his critic Rudolf Bultmann. Deissmann has been remembered overseas, and in recent years his philology has been championed in Australia by G. H. R. Horsley and his pupil A. Gerber, both contributors here. Cilliers Breytenbach judges, however, that Deissmann is ‘forgotten’ – apart from his linguistic work – ‘between the Rhine and the Elbe’.

The editors address this situation with a collection which sheds light, as the subtitle suggests, on the theologian (the biblical interpreter and exponent of ecumenism) as well as the philologist. Yet, with Deissmann, it ranges still more widely. A. Gerber, developing a chapter in his Deissmann as philologist (2010), deals with a debated wartime instance of Deissmann's participation in public life, his editorship (1914–21) of an Evangelischer Wochenbrief circulated to American and other English-speaking Protestant readers. Here, as in his earlier book, Gerber argues that Deissmann rose above the level of propaganda and sought ecumenically to further international Christian solidarity. Then Deissmann's ecumenical co-operation with Söderblom is surveyed by Söderblom's biographer, D. Lange.

Deissmann's lifelong links with his homeland in Nassau, the scene of his early pastoral work and teaching in Herborn, are studied in a valuable region-oriented study by the late Karl Dienst; he notes Deissmann's own comment that here he found Pauline mysticism brought to life in the piety of the country people. Christoph Markschies assesses Deissmann's service as university Rector in the turbulent last years of the Weimar Republic. This rich essay, full of illuminating comment on the Berlin environment, forms a sympathetic yet critical interpretation which may owe something to Markschies's service as President of the same university.

Within these elements of an historical framework five essays reconsider Deissmann's biblical work. D. S. du Toit and (in a magnificently detailed English survey covering Deissmann's whole career) G. H. R. Horsley evaluate his lexical studies and his philology in both narrower and broader senses of the term. (Horsley's suggestion that an inspiration for Deissmann's lexicographical ambitions was the pioneering 1620 New Testament lexicon of the Herborn scholar Georg Pasor can be viewed together with Dienst on the importance of Herborn for Deissmann.) Barbara Aland's fine survey of Deissmann's Pauline interpretation is matched by Breytenbach on his work as historian, with emphasis on Light from the ancient East. Both authors (and also Lange) compare and contrast him with Wilhelm Bousset and the History of Religions School; he shared Bousset's concern with cult and piety rather than theology, but not his characteristic derivation of Christianity from Gentile religion. Deissmann the Septuagintalist emphasised, rather, a continuity with Greek-language Judaism – but with contrast as well as affinity between Paul and an accomplished Greek Jewish exponent of piety like Philo: ‘Philo represents high literary culture, St. Paul the strength that wells up from the people.’ The contention echoed here that the earliest Christianity was a movement of the lower classes is discussed, finally, by the ancient historian Alexander Weiss, with a note of its rejection and occasional welcome down to the present.

The work considered in these five essays mostly comes from the highly creative earlier period of Deissmann's life, which is less strongly represented in the biographical contributions. Thus his early commitment to Christian Socialism appears only marginally, but illuminates the forceful coherence of his piety, scholarship and politics at this stage. On the other hand, Deissmann's early and continuing engagement as a Septuagintal scholar, although it is not studied separately, receives notice from Du Toit, Horsley and Breytenbach. Moreover, both earlier and later periods of his life are illuminated by archival material and family papers, in the essays by Gerber, Horsley and Markschies.

The whole volume, however, forms a treasury of information – and of judicious and stimulating judgements. The editors deserve warm thanks for their focus on a life and work which have suffered the iniquity of oblivion, but have also had long-term influence.