Ethelbert Stauffer
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Ethelbert Stauffer (May 8, 1902 in
Friedelsheim Friedelsheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim (district), Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. ...
– August 1, 1979 in
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) was a 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
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.


Life

Stauffer was the son of a Mennonite preacher born and raised in Worms. After attending the local grammar school, he studied Protestant theology at the universities of Halle, Berlin and Tübingen from 1921 to 1925. He then entered the service of the Mennonite churches in Hamburg and Altona. He converted to the Evangelical Church in 1928, and became assistant pastor of the Provincial-Saxon church. The New Testament scholar Ernst von Dobschütz appointed him the faculty assistant in Halle, where he graduated in 1929. He became a lecturer there in 1930. In the 1930s Stauffer was appointed professor of New Testament Studies and director of Ancient History Studies at the
University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...
. Although he never joined the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
, he was a long-time and leading proponent of the "German Christian" movement, which attempted to align German Protestantism with the Party's antisemitic and ''
Führerprinzip The (, ''Leader Principle'') was the basis of authority, executive authority in the government of Nazi Germany. It placed the Führer's word above all written law, and meant that Law of Nazi Germany, government policies, decisions, and officia ...
'' ideological principles,Tobias, Nicklas 2011, "The Bible and Anti-Semitism" in ''The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible'' ed. Michael Lieb, Emma Mason and Jonathan Robert Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, p. 276 and he has frequently been accused of "Nazi activities."Heschel, Susannah 2005, "Confronting the Past: Post-1945 German Protestant Theology and the Fate of the Jews" in ''The Protestant-Jewish Conundrum: Studies in Contemporary Jewry'' ed. Jonathan Frankel and Ezra Mendelsohn, vol. XXIV, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 58. Stauffer argued that it was the duty of the theological faculty to promote a relationship of trust between the church and state and "called on the theological faculties not to engage in politics, but to strengthen, through their theological work, the ''politische Spannkraft'' (political vigor) of the German ''Volk''; the unity of the German ''Volk'' cannot exist without Jesus Christ, he wrote." He also promoted physical education as part of a theological education. One of Stauffer's early contributions to the movement was his 1933 publication ''Unser Glaube und unsere Geschichte: Zur Begegnung zwischen Kreuz und Hakenkreuz'' ("Our Faith and Our History: Towards a Meeting of the Cross and the Swastika"). His relationship with the Nazi state became ambivalent, and he was removed from his post as vice-dean of the faculty of Bonn University in January 1943 for anti-fascist statements in a lecture on "Anthony and Cleopatra." After the war Stauffer, like many academics with training in Jewish texts but with compromised war-time records, escaped close scrutiny by the Allied authorities on "the naive assumption among Allied authorities… that those who had expertise in rabbinical texts must have been sympathetic to Judaism, or at least uninvolved in Nazi activities." He was elected Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Bonn University but resigned at the first meeting of the faculty on June 5 1946, prompted by questions about his wartime activities. Although vindicated by a review of his writings, he advised the rector on 8 December 1947 that he would accept an offer from
Erlangen University Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...
to take up the newly-created chair of New Testament Studies. In 1957 he admitted the anti-semitic ideas of the German Christians by stating: "The primary role of Jesus research is clear: De-Judaizing the Jesus tradition." Stauffer became professor emeritus in 1967. Stauffer had two daughters and two sons. His third child followed him in his theological career. His son
Dietrich Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "ruler of the people", but also "keeper of the keys" or "lockpick" (either the tool or the profession). Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398–1440) * Thierry of Alsace (; 1099–1168), ...
became a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the
University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...
.


Studies


Early Christianity

He undertook much research into the relationship between the
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
sources and early
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
. He showed that the
Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
does not follow the
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
but the funerary ritual of Julius Caesar and that the ''Clementia Caesaris'' was the pre-Christian forerunner of Christ's forgiveness.


Universalism

Stauffer was a
Christian universalist Christian universalism is a school of Christian theology focused around the doctrine of universal reconciliation – the view that all human beings will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. "Christian universalism" ...
, believing that ultimately all people would be saved. He believed that God's irresistible grace and will are destined to overcome even the most obdurate oppositio

He also taught that divine punishment after death was real, but that it was not arbitrary or vindictive, but remedial and limited as to duration, essentially
Purgatory In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...
br>


Martyrdom in Christian theology

In 1933, Stauffer put forth a thesis regarding the role of martyrdom in Christian theology (specifically Anabaptist theology). According to Stauffer, in the period of post-canonical Judaism (since about 175 B.C.) a new viewpoint impressed itself on the then flourishing apocryphal literature: the idea that suffering and martyrdom for one's faith are the very meaning of the happenings of history, for a double reason: (a) they represent a causal necessity in the great fight between the divine and the satanic order. The great Adversary does not allow a pure realization of God's plan, at least not in this present aeon or world period. (b) Such suffering, however, serves at the same time a very great purpose: it ushers in the new aeon. Death becomes victory, martyrdom is an expiating sacrifice, and Satan will be overcome only by such nonresistant suffering. That was the teaching of Daniel 3 (the three men in the furnace) and of the Second and Third Book of the Maccabees (e.g., the story of the Woman with seven sons, mother and her seven sons). In short, the apocalyptic, pre-Christian literature offers this double justification of martyrdom: causally it is inescapable, and teleologically ("what for") it is absolutely meaningful. The New Testament continued this apocalyptic trend even further; the Cross becoming the very center not only of salvation but also the vindication of all martyrdom for conscience' sake. In fact the idea of Nachfolge or discipleship would almost be without meaning if it were not connected with such earthly tribulations. The believer's conflict with the "world" is the surest indication that the disciple is true to the master, testifying for another reality and preparing for the coming of the kingdom. Two figures of speech soon became generally accepted: the disciple must become a "soldier" ccasionally also called a "knight"of Christ who "fights the good fight" to the bitter end, and secondly, baptism is called death just as death is a sort of baptism by blood.


Bibliography

* ''Christus und die Caesaren'', Hamburg 1952 * ''Christ and the Caesars. Historical sketches'' (translated by Kaethe Gregor Smith and Ronald Gregor Smith). London: SCM-Press, 1955 * ''Jerusalem und Rom im Zeitalter Jesu Christi'', Bern 1957 * ''Jesus: Gestalt und Geschichte'', 1957 * ''New Testament Theology'', 1963


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stauffer, Ethelbert 20th-century German Protestant theologians German numismatists People from the Palatinate (region) Academic staff of the University of Bonn 1902 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers