Adolf Schlatter
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Adolf Schlatter (16 August 1852 – 19 May 1938) was a well-known Swiss-born German
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
and
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
specialising in the
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
and
systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...
at
Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
and
Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...
. Schlatter has published more than 400 scholarly and popular pieces during his academic career. In his work "The Nature of New Testament Theology. The Contribution of William Wrede and Adolf Schlatter", Robert Morgan writes: "Schlatter ... was considered a conservative, and is perhaps the only 'conservative' New Testament scholar since Bengel who can be rated in the same class as Baur, Wrede, Bousset and Bultmann".


Biography

Schlatter, born in St. Gallen to a
pietistic Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life. Although the movement is aligned with Luth ...
preacher, studied
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and theology in
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
and Tübingen between 1871 and 1875, gaining his post-doctoral
teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the of an educational institution. Teaching is closely related ...
qualification (''Habilitation'') in 1880. The process leading up to the latter qualification was a relatively complex and dramatic phase in Schlatter's career. Significant events during this time illustrate how dominant, biased, and discriminating liberal paradigms in German universities were at the time. Robert Yarbrough explains: "Standing between Adolf Schlatter and completion of his doctoral dissertation (Habilitation) in Bern, Switzerland, was a mountain range of unforeseeable obstacles ... Schlatter was ... shaken by the hostile reception from professor Nippold. But he was not easily deterred ... After submitting his dissertation ... Schlatter had to wait to be granted the privilege of taking an imposing battery of exams ... Since the faculty was anything but thrilled with Schlatter’s application, the exam procedure they decided on was intentionally quite strict: in addition to oral examinations in five subjects, Schlatter would have to write eight assigned essays under supervised conditions! Only if he passed all of these ‘magna cum laude’ ... would the faculty be willing to confer on him the right to lecture ... these regulations were ... never applied to anyone else after that! ... Schlatter was able to sit his exams in December 1880 ... he passed in praiseworthy fashion according to faculty resolution. His overall mark of ‘magna cum laude’ was never bested in subsequent decades ..." p. 71-84. In 1888, he became a
lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...
at the
University of Berne The University of Bern (, , ) is a public research university in the Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a broad choice of courses and progra ...
. Between 1893 and 1930, he held professorships in Greifswald, Berlin, and Tübingen, the latter where he eventually died after a very productive and successful academic career. From 1897, he was co-editor, alongside Hermann Cremer, of a magazine called ''Beiträge zur Förderung christlicher Theologie'' (Articles for the Promotion of Christian Theology). Schlatter became particularly well known for his analysis of the New Testament, which was accessible to a broad audience. He was adamant about the manifestation of
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
in
nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
and in
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
, and this conviction led him to a criticism of the theophilosophical ideas of
German idealism German idealism is a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
. His down-to-earth interpretation of the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
also brought Schlatter into conflict with the contemporary school of thought in the
Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed Protestantism, Reformed, and united and uniting churches, United Protestantism in Ger ...
. In addition, Schlatter worked towards the development of a
theory of knowledge Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowledg ...
with which he could reconcile his religious convictions. Becoming professor in Berlin in the 1890s saw Schlatter became the academic "counterpart" of Adolf von Harnack. The latter in later times acknowledged Schlatter's sharp mind and penetrating ability to critique his work, even expressing sorrow when Schlatter left Berlin for Tübingen. One significant event in the Berlin years that caused great tension, not just in Berlin, but in the whole of liberal Germany is worth mentioning. Robert Yarbrough describes this event as follows: Schlatter had a deep impact on numerous students (see the discussion about Dietrich Bonhoeffer below). His approach to faith, science and biblical criticism was a breath of fresh air for numerous theology students, giving them hope in an otherwise anti-supernatural intellectual environment, where all that remained of the New Testament was a "historical Jesus" offering the highest moral ideals for society.


Schlatter, Nazism and anti-Semitism

According to historian
Saul Friedländer Saul Friedländer (; born October 11, 1932) is a Czech-born Jewish historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA. Biography Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He was raised in France and lived thr ...
in his ''Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945'', Schlatter belonged to a "hard core of Jew haters" who considered the Nazi anti-Semitic laws too mild. Friedländer claims that the latter comes from a popular 1935 pamphlet by Schlatter, ''Wird der Jude über uns siegen? Ein Wort für die Weihnacht'' ill the Jew be Victorious Over Us?: A Word for Christmasthat regrets the "favorable situation" of the Jews in contemporary Germany. Though his advocates are correct in arguing that Schlatter was confronting Nazi racism, what in fact Schlatter did was employ a widespread anti-regime polemic finding currency at the time: the “Nazi as Jew” concept. According to Stephen Haynes, “If a dominant characteristic of interwar religious discourse was its penchant for stigmatizing the Nazi enemy with a ‘Jewish’ stain, then anti-Nazi authors knew instinctively that jewifying National Socialism would strengthen their case with the average German.” Schlatter's tract firmly situates him in the anti-Jewish spirit of the period, and on pp. 14–15 his key point was clear: the Jewish priests’ and teachers’ national selfishness (nationalen Eigensucht) was no different from those who knew nothing higher than the racial soul; for both thought in a fashion that was completely Jewish (vollständig jüdisch). The Gestapo certainly sought to confiscate any material that would equate the regime with the Jews. A careful reading within historical context shows that Schlatter's final work ''Do We Know Jesus?'' works within this same framework of paralleling Jesus's and the disciples’ struggles with the Jews to the church's struggle with Nazism. In 2012, James E. McNutt published his understanding of the manner in which Schlatter's criticism of Nazism functioned in tandem with his views of the Jewish people. Coming to an "objective" understanding of Schlatter's view of the Jews, the Nazi Party and Hitler himself, continues to be discussed and researched by many. Two factors that have not received enough attention in these discussions are: # Schlatter was more than 80 years old when the Nazi party took power. He was an old man in the final stages of his life. Despite this, he did what almost none of his more "liberal" colleagues in i.e. Berlin did: he openly criticized the Reich. Although of advanced age, Schlatter's mind and energy peaked during the 1930s, witnessed to by the publication of his magisterial ''Gottes Gerechtigkeit'' - a classic commentary on Paul's Romans letter. Despite his criticism of the regime Schlatter's attitude toward aspects of Nazi ideology remain ambivalent. To many of his contemporaries he problematically embraced views held by the
German Christians Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from ...
who identified their faith as one with the goals of the Reich. Weeks after the Jewish boycott of early April 1933, Schlatter could attach his signature to a public statement affirming: "We are full of gratitude to God, that he as the Lord of History has given our people in Adolf Hitler the Fuehrer and deliverer from deep trouble." Schlatter refused to denounce the "
Aryan paragraph An Aryan paragraph () was a clause in the statutes of an organisation, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership or right of residence solely for members of the "Aryan race" and excluded from such rights any non-Aryans, particula ...
" which would remove Protestant clergy of Jewish descent from their pulpits, stating that: "At this time, fellowship with the compatriots (Volksgenossen) is more important than fellowship with Jewish Christians." Furthermore, as Werner Neuer has pointed out Schlatter refused to sign the
Barmen Declaration __NOTOC__ The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the de ...
of the
Confessing Church The Confessing Church (, ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See dro ...
in 1934, since to embrace God's revelation apart from the Volk would force him to “close his Bible and separate his faith from his very being". # According to Martin Rumscheidt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, later executed for his involvement in trying to assassinate Hitler, was greatly inspired by Schlatter: Bonhoeffer's admiration, however, diminished in 1933, following Schlatter's scathing critique of Bonhoeffer's early draft of what eventually would become the "Bethel Confession." Contrary to Bonhoeffer's wishes, church leaders submitted the draft for review by some twenty experts throughout Germany including Adolf Schlatter. Schlatter rejected the draft due to what he saw as an illegitimate separation of the confessions from a distinct German expression. He published the seminal points of his rejection in a pamphlet entitled “The New German Character in the Church.” ( Die neue deutsche Art in der Kirche (Bethel: Verlagshandlung der Anstalt Bethel, 1933). Attitudes such as Schlatter's led Bonhoeffer to quit the project, and he voiced his frustration later by asserting: “We will have to be very much on our guard against letting the struggle get us entangled in false questions and false themes. I need only recall theological writings of the last two years – and from our side too! - Althaus’s German Hour of the Church, Heim, even Schlatter, The New German Characteristics in the Church – to make my point.” However, Schlatter's constant critique of the Nazi view of man, and the dangerous route taken by Hitler and the Reich provides a counterbalance to the later critique of Bonhoeffer. Also to be remembered is that Schlatter never propagated physical harm to the Jewish people. Primary source research reveals Schlatter's close personal and professional relationship to
Gerhard Kittel Gerhard Kittel (23 September 1888 – 11 July 1948) was a German Lutheran theologian and lexicographer of biblical languages. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis and an open antisemite. He is known in the field of biblical studies for hi ...
, whose anti-Semitic publications forced his removal from his teaching position following the war.For Kittel see, Robert Ericksen, ''Theologians Under Hitler.'' Yale University Press, 1985. Schlatter's daughter testified that Kittel and her father worked closely together in reading and editing each other's work, and despite differences with regard to aspects of Nazi policy, Schlatter “accompanied Professor Kittel on the road that he had to walk, up to the very last days before his death in May 1938.” Overlooked in Werner Neuer's biography is the fact that while actively involved in Walter Frank's antisemitic ''Reichsinstitut'', producing work supporting Nazi propaganda, Kittel was invited to be the memorial speaker at Schlatter's funeral. Archives of Schlatter's work, as well as a foundation dedicated to him, are situated in
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
. In Tübingen, the "Adolf Schlatter House" in Österbergstrasse is named after him, as is the "Adolf Schlatter Home" in
Recke Recke is a municipality in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Recke is situated approximately 20 km north-east of Rheine and 25 km north-west of Osnabrück. Neighbouring municipalities * Ibbenbü ...
.


Selected works


Books

* - (republished as ''Der Dienst des Christen'' in 1999) * * * * * * * * * * * *


Journal articles

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Feschriften

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Notes


External links

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Summaries of modern research literature about SchlatterDr. Robert W. Yarbrough's Lecture Series on Schlatter followed by a list of his publications on Schlatter
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlatter, Adolf 1852 births 1938 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians German Lutheran theologians German biblical scholars New Testament scholars Academic staff of the University of Greifswald Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the University of Tübingen 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers People from St. Gallen (city) Lutheran biblical scholars