Johannes Friedrich (bishop)

Johannes Friedrich (born 20 June 1948 in Bielefeld-Gadderbaum) is a German Lutheran theologian and was a German Lutheran bishop.

Friedrich studied theology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and at the University of Tübingen,[1] was reverend in Nuremberg, campus minister at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and German Lutheran Provost at Redeemer Church in Jerusalem.

[2] He is a member of the EKD Council of the Protestant Church in Germany,[3] since 1999 Landesbischof (bishop) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria[4] and from 2005 leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany.

[5] Friedrich worked on a Lutheran/Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JD)[6] and supports the Christian–Islamic dialogue in order to cause the Christian–Islamic understanding.

[7][8] In 2011 Friedrich was succeeded as bishop of the ELCB by Heinrich Bedford-Strohm.