[485] And the second is: objectivity. Sometimes, when you consider me as an existentialist theologian–or some other drawer into which you want to put me! [smiling], then don't forget that BEFORE you put me into this drawer, unambiguously, there are many ambiguities in my setup [?], namely a great PASSION for objectivity (you don't believe it, but it's true!) [some laughter], for objective looking at realities WITH THE BEST POSSIBLE METHODS which can be reached. Now I can give one proof for this, before your court [judgment], namely the proof that I am terribly attacked for this by many theologians for my radical objectivity with respect to historical research^a, even if it goes to the holy Legend and to the Christian myth.

And I am not willing to give up this complete objectivity; NOBODY who does so is worthy of being an academic teacher anyhow! But now, is this sufficient for the educational function^b of the university^c? Isn't there something else demanded? Here hundreds of years of the history^d of the university gave an answer; they gave this answer by speaking of theology as the FIRST faculty^e, and some little remnants of this can still be observed in European universities: in every academic procession,

the first faculty is the theological. But this is all what's left [laughter] of this evaluation! Otherwise it is by far the last, and some of the new universities [such] as Hamburg, and Köln and Frankfurt were founded in the beginning of this century without a theological faculty completely: they had no "queen," not even a dispossessed queen. They had nothing at all! Now it is interesting that this is now remedied, and it might interest you, in