A German Twist on an Old Classic

Three Westminster students are hard at work on a new German translation of the Westminster Confession.

“We want this to be of pastoral use - a tool for ministers and church members to dive deeper into the Reformed faith.”

Johannes Müller (ThM '21), minister of Berlin Presbyterian Church, leads the project. Over the last few months, he has drafted a translation that aims to balance theological accuracy with readability. This is no mean feat, given some of the 17th-century turns of phrase!

Florian Weicken (MDiv '16) and Marius Wahrlich (MDiv '22) have now joined Johannes to prepare the final version. The three native German speakers have a clear vision for the work: “We want this to be of pastoral use—a tool for ministers and church members to dive deeper into the Reformed faith.”

“We've set our sights on the long term. We hope this becomes the official German translation of the Confession, a window for the wider church into Presbyterianism.”

There are already 2 translations of the Westminster Confession, so why go to all this effort? “We're thankful for work that has been done in the past, but the current works contain some basic translation errors. They are also pretty hard reading—even for native German speakers!”

What is the future of this translation? “We've set our sights on the long term. We hope this becomes the official German translation of the Confession, a window for the wider church into Presbyterianism.”

We're thankful for the vision of these three men, and look forward to reading the result of their work (although we may need our German dictionary on standby...).