Professors as publicly appointed academic teachers should not only represent their subject competently,

but should also know the advantages and problems of their subject and be able to discuss them in public.

Of the many professors I wrote to, only a few had the courage and took the trouble to answer at all. I was very happy about the letters and would like to thank them very much.

The content of the answers, however, showed me that the authors could probably train pastors and religious teachers for church service.

But they fail when it comes to representing the Christian faith argumentatively in a public, non-church and atheistic environment.

For there it is not enough to repeat inner-church standpoints. Here one would have to deal with the arguments of the interlocutors critical of the church and of Christianity, and take the interlocutor as an equal partner at all seriously.

But there is no sign of this in the answers I received. Perhaps this is also only the arrogance of the professors who do not talk to people without doctorates, but also the church resignations show the churches’ lack of ability to talk.