The Four Gospels

Rev. Christoph Rau (1928-2018) was born in Gross Naundorf, Wittenberg, Germany, and raised in a Protestant rectory. After military service and imprisonment, he completed his high school diploma at the Kreuzgymnasium Dresden, followed by studies in theology in Berlin and Rostock and music training in Leipzig. After protests against the paramilitary training of students, he fled to West Germany overnight and began training in Stuttgart to become a priest for The Christian Community. For decades he researched the structure of the Gospels, publishing his results in monographs on Matthew, Mark, and John (1972) and his comprehensive work, Die Vier um den Einen: Wesensart und spiritueller Hintergrund der Evangelien (2008), published in English as The Four Gospels: Their Essence and Spiritual Background (Lindisfarne Books, 2024). He also coedited German translations of the New Testament by Emil Bock (1980) and Heinrich Ogilvie (1996) and edited the literary estate of Michael Bauer in five volumes (1985-1997). He also wrote a biography, Michael Bauer und seine Lebensbegegnung mit Friedrich Rittelmeyer (Michael Bauer and his life encounter with Friedrich Rittelmeyer, 1995).