Peter Winzeler

* Zurich, 1948
Lives in: Biel (Switzerland)

Theologian

Dr. phil. Peter Winzeler studied Theology in Zurich following experts of the Old Testaments and the History of Religions as Victor Maag, Hans Heinrich Schmid or Fritz Stolz. The “radical” theologists Gollwitzer und Marquardt, related to the Berlin of the 1968 context, made him rediscover the forgotten socialist and Jewish inheritance of the revolutionary Karl Barth (which would be the subject of his dissertation); professor G. W. Locher made him aquainted with the also forgotten inheritance of Zwingli (which would be his thesis); also Albert Schweitzer is an essential reference to him. Winzeler has been inspired also by Herbert Marcuse and by Jakob Taubes, son of a rabbi. In Berlin he would be confronted with the notorious and methodological antijudaism of the usual historical-critical exegesis.

Finally, Winzeler was called to the University of Bern, where he works as a professor for Theology of the Reformation and Modern Reformed Theology. The web of the University offers more information about his career and publications.

Since 2009, Winzeler worked together with Gunnar Heinsohn on the project Vorsehungsglaube und Chronologiekritik? about Zwingli’s view on chronology issues and his contribution to the nowadays generally accepted timeframe of history. This research project is part of the University of Bern and continues until 2013.

Winzeler discovered Velikovsky in the 1980s; in this moment he started to contribute to the GRMNG, the VFG and (later) the ZS newsletters. Once casting doubt on Velikovsky’s chronological fundamentalism when interpreting the Bible, also the fundaments of Ancient History, as laid by Eduard Meyer, appeared to be quite fragiles. On the other hand, Winzeler does not favour some radical solutions as proposed by Christoph Marx, Fomenko etc. In addition he question the sense of a reform of chronology just for its own sake: what use would it be to deny the existence of Caesar, Augustus or the historical Jesus if it is not regarding the cultural implications for our century? Winzeler would prefer, therefore, to lay the fundament for a post-capitalist (and post-marxist) Economy of the Israelite and democratic Socialism. He considers authors as Marx, Freud and Velikovsky (besides the theologian Karl Barth or the philosopher Levinas) “the great spiritual challenge of any future chronology which tries to escape the narrow compulsions of patriarchate, christianity and global capitalism”.

Winzeler was a contributor to the magazine “Zeitensprünge” (ZS), published in Gräfelfing / Munich by Heribert Illig.