Paul Althaus (4 February 1888 – 18 May 1966) was a German Lutheran theologian. He was born in Obershagen in the

Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...

, and he died in

Erlangen 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 ...

. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professor of practical and systematic theology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, becoming full professor two years later. Althaus was moderately critical of

Lutheran Orthodoxy Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the ''Book of Concord'' and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roma ...

and evangelical-leaning

Neo-Lutheranism Neo-Lutheranism was a 19th-century revival movement within Lutheranism which began with the Pietist-driven '' Erweckung,'' or ''Awakening'', and developed in reaction against theological rationalism and pietism. The movement followed the Old L ...

. He termed it a “mistake” to “defend the authenticity and infallibility of the Bible.” In 1933, when a professor of theology at the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and probably the leading Luther authority of his day, he welcomed the emergence to power of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

- "Our Protestant churches have greeted the turning point of 1933 as a gift and miracle of God".

Life

Paul Althaus, son of the Lutheran theologian Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus (1861-1925), studied Lutheran theology in Tübingen and Göttingen. In Tübingen he was especially influenced by Adolf Schlatter. In Göttingen his doctorate was supervised by Eduard Stange, and he passed his habilitation there in 1913/'14. In the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served as a military chaplain. From 1919 Althaus was an ordinary professor in systematic theology at Rostock University. In 1925 he took up the chair in systematic and New Testament theology in Erlangen. From the summer semester of 1929, he was an honorary member of the Christian student union of Erlangen. He exclusively taught systematic theology until 1932, after which he also taught New Testament theology. Althaus held the position of university preacher from 1932 to 1964. Between 1926 and 1964, he was president of the Luther-Gesellschaft. Having welcomed the National Socialist rise to power as a 'divine gift and miracle' in 1933, he nonetheless served after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as the inaugural head of the internal university denazification commission.Ernst Klee: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich.''. Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, S. 13. However, on 31 January 1947, after his involvement in National Socialism became public, he was removed from his post by the American military government in the course of its own

denazification Denazification () was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by removing those who had been Nazi Par ...

process. In 1948 he was once again granted permission to teach in the University of Erlangen, where he worked until his retirement in 1966. In 1953, he was elected as a member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

. The executor for his literary estate was the historian and political theorist Gotthard Jasper.

Theology

Original Revelation

With his doctrine of 'original' or 'fundamental' revelation, Althaus opposed the Christocentric theology of revelation of

dialectical theology In Christianity, Neo-orthodoxy or Neoorthodoxy, also known as crisis theology and dialectical theology, was a theological movement developed in the aftermath of the First World War. The movement was largely a reaction against doctrines of 19th ...

, especially that of

Karl Barth Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Decl ...

, who had denied any self-disclosure of God outside Christ. For Althaus God reveals himself outside of Jesus Christ in, for example, human existence, in fate, in history, in nature and in humanity's consciousness of truth and sin. Original revelation is however subordinated to the revelation of salvation in Christ, owing to its being tainted by the attributes of the sinful world.

Doctrine of Creation

Althaus treated institutions such as marriage, family, work, the economy, the people (''das Volk''), state, church and society as originally ordained by God as part of God's good creation. They are not to be understood (in Lutheran terms) as mere orders of preservation but as orders of creation, because God acts continually through them. The orders are the ways God draws the world towards God's kingdom and secures human common life. For this reason the orders bind humanity: it is obligated towards them in its freedom for responsible decision. Althaus' view of the people (''das Volk'') as an order of creation led to his contentious declarations about

National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

and

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

Luther

Althaus is considered one of the foremost experts of

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

's theology. In particular his works ''The Theology of Martin Luther'' and ''The Ethics of Martin Luther'' remain standard works in the field.

Capital Punishment

Althaus called for the introduction of the death penalty after the passing of the German Constitution of 1949.

Nazism & Antisemitism

Like many Protestant theologians Althaus welcomed the National Socialists' rise to power. From 1936 he gradually distanced himself from the Third Reich, partly because of the increasing hostility to the church of Hitler's policies. Already in Althaus' writings before 1933, however, there were antisemitic views such as the idea of 'the people' (''das Volk'') as one of the orders of creation (in Luther's sense). In 1933 Althaus and his colleague Werner Elert drafted a report for the Erlangen Faculty of Theology on a planned '

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 ...

' for the

Protestant Reich Church The German Evangelical Church () was a successor to the German Protestant Church Confederation from 1933 until 1945. It is also known in English as the Protestant Reich Church () and colloquially as the Reich Church (). The German Christians ...

(''Reichskirche''). Althaus and Elert called in their report for the exclusion of 'nihilist' candidates for official church positions. 'Nihilists' who already held appointments were however - despite demands from 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 ...

- not to be removed from office.For critical discussion and interpretation of the Erlangan Report cf. Walther von Loewenich, ''Erlebte Theologie.Begegnungen, Erfahrungen, Erwägungen''. München 1979, pp. 177-180; also Karlmann Beyschlag: ''Die Erlanger Theologie'' (= Einzelarbeiten aus der Kirchengeschichte Bayerns 67). Erlangen 1993, pp. 149-178, esp. pp.162-165.

Honors

In 1959 Paul Althaus was awarded the

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit () is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people". The or ...

, an honor instituted in 1957. It is awarded 'as a mark of respectful and grateful recognition for outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people'.

Works

* ''Luther und das Deutschtum uther and Germanness', Leipzig 1917 * ''Kirche und Volkstum. Der völkische Wille im Lichte des Evangeliums hurch and Nationality: the National Will in the Light of the Gospel', Gütersloh 1928 * ''Grundriß der Ethik utline of Ethics', Erlangen 1931 (earlier edition: ''Leitsätze'') * ''Die deutsche Stunde der Kirche he Church's German Period', Göttingen 1934 * ''Obrigkeit und Führertum. Wandlungen des evangelischen Staatsethos in Deutschland uthority and Führerism: Changes in the Evangelical State Ethos in Germany', Gütersloh 1936 * ''Der Christenglaube und das Sterben hristian Faith and Death', Gütersloh 1941 * ''Vom Sterben und vom Leben n Death and Life', Gütersloh 1950 (earlier edition: ''Der Christenglaube und das Sterben'') * ''Die Theologie Martin Luthers he Theology of Martin Luther', Gütersloh 1962 * ''The Theology of Martin Luther'' (tr. Robert Schultz) Fortress Press 1966 * ''Die Christliche Wahrheit. Lehrbuch der Dogmatik hristian Truth: Textbook of Dogmatics', 8th edition, Gütersloh 1969 * ''Die Ethik Martin Luthers he Ethics of Martin Luther' Gütersloh 1965 * ''The Ethics of Martin Luther'' (tr. Robert Schulz) Fortress Press 1972