Paul Althaus

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August Wilhelm Hermann Paul Althaus (born February 4, 1888 in Obershagen , † May 18, 1966 in Erlangen ) was a Protestant theologian . He gained importance through his eschatology, through his original doctrine of revelation, through his creation ethics and as a Luther researcher and preacher. He is controversial because of his initially positive attitude to National Socialism (he himself represented German national positions), his anti-Semitic statements and his advocacy of the introduction of an Aryan paragraph in the church.

Life

Paul Althaus, son of the evangelical theologian Paul Althaus (1861–1925), studied Protestant theology in Tübingen and Göttingen . In Tübingen he was mainly influenced by Adolf Schlatter . In Göttingen, he was in Edward rod Dr. theol. obtained his doctorate and habilitation there in 1913/14. During the First World War he served as a military pastor. From 1919 Paul Althaus was a full professor for systematic theology at the University of Rostock . In 1925 Althaus, who had worked in the ecumenical movement since his student days , took part in the Stockholm World Conference of Churches . In the same year he was offered the chair for dogmatics, apologetics and the history of dogma in Erlangen . In 1932, after Philipp Bachmann's death, he became his successor at the chair for systematic theology and New Testament exegesis. From the summer semester of 1929 he was an honorary member of the student association Uttenruthia Erlangen. In 1931 Althaus became a university preacher - initially until 1937 together with the practical theologian Friedrich Ulmer . With an interruption between 1940 and 1946, when the office was abolished during the "Third Reich", he held this office until well after his retirement in 1957 to 1964. Paul Althaus was President of the Luther Society from 1926 and 1964 .

After the end of the Second World War , in 1945 he was initially head of the university's internal denazification commission. However, after his initially positive attitude towards National Socialism became known, he was dismissed by the American military government on January 31, 1947 as part of the denazification of his service. In 1948 he again received his teaching license at the University of Erlangen, where he worked until his retirement in 1957. In 1953 Althaus was elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Gotthard Jasper manages his estate .

Teaching

Original doctrine of revelation

With the doctrine of the original or basic revelation, Althaus turned against the Christocentric revelatory theology of dialectical theology around Karl Barth , which denied a self- disclosure of God outside of Christ. According to Althaus, God also reveals himself outside of Jesus Christ (in human existence, in fate, in history , in nature and in human awareness of truth and sin). However, the original revelation remains subordinate to the revelation of salvation in Christ, since it is afflicted with the attributes of the sinful world.

Creation theology

Althaus viewed institutions such as marriage , family , work , economy , law , the people , the state , church and society as being orders of existence given by God with his good creation from the beginning. They are not to be understood as mere orders of maintenance, but rather as orders of creation, since God is constantly working in them. The ordinances are God's means to preserve the world towards his kingdom and to guarantee the coexistence of people. In return, they bind people who are claimed to be free to make responsible decisions for them. - Althaus' view of the people as the order of creation has led to his controversial statements about National Socialism .

Luther researcher

Paul Althaus is considered to be an excellent expert on Martin Luther's theology . His publications "Theology of Martin Luther" and "The Ethics of Martin Luther" are still considered standard works today.

death penalty

Althaus called for the introduction of the death penalty even after the Federal German Basic Law was passed in 1949 .

Relationship to National Socialism, anti-Semitism

Like many Protestant theologians, Althaus welcomed the seizure of power by the National Socialists as a supposed opportunity for the re-Christianization of Germany and as a realistic opportunity to overcome the unjust provisions of the Treaty of Versailles . In his differentiated work The German Hour of the Church he called Hitler's takeover of power a “gift and miracle from God”. In 1936 he underpinned the leadership of the Führer with his theology of order and theologically founded the National Socialist national community. In 1939 he preached the persecution of the Jews as a visible sign of God's promise. Althaus 'writings before 1933 already contain some anti-Semitic statements that result from Althaus' doctrine of the people as the order of creation. In 1933 Althaus and his colleague Werner Elert drafted the report of the Erlangen theological faculty for a planned Aryan paragraph for the Reich Church . In their report, Althaus and Elert demand that "non-Aryan" applicants for church office be excluded. However, "non-Aryans" who have already been employed should not be dismissed from their offices - contrary to the demands of German Christians .

Awards

In 1959 Paul Althaus was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Fonts (selection)

  • Luther and the Germans, Leipzig 1917
  • The last things. Draft of a Christian eschatology (studies of the apologetic seminar in Wernigerode 9). Gütersloh 1922
  • Church and People. The Volkish Will in the Light of the Gospel, Gütersloh 1928
  • Outline of Ethics, Erlangen 1931 (earlier edition and T .: Guidelines )
  • The German hour of the church, Göttingen 1933
  • Authority and leadership. Changes in the Protestant ethos in Germany, Gütersloh 1936
  • The Christian faith and dying, Gütersloh 1941
  • On dying and living, Gütersloh 1950 (earlier edition and T .: The Christian faith and dying )
  • The theology of Martin Luther, Gütersloher Verlag-Haus G. Mohn, Gütersloh 1962
  • The ethics of Martin Luther, Gütersloh 1965
  • The Letter to the Romans (NTD 6), Göttingen, 10th edition 1966
  • The Christian Truth. Textbook of Dogmatics, 8th edition, Gütersloh 1969

literature

Quote

“And finally one may remember the Jewish question. However we Germans solve them - there is one thing that cannot be changed: that the Jews remain in our country as among the other peoples of the world. It seems to me that this fate, beyond all the difficult tasks and hardships that it brings with it, has a clear meaning from God: that the Jews everywhere, probably particularly sensitive in our country, are breaking the folkish unity, should point to the limit and relativity ethnic separation and unity and looking forward to the coming kingdom of God. "

- The German hour of the church (p. 48)

“It (the church) knows that in the current situation it has called itself to a new determination in its task of being the people's church of the Germans. This includes that today she consciously reasserts her principle of the ethnic solidarity of officials with her community and also applies it to Christians of Jewish descent. For the position of the church in popular life and for the fulfillment of its task in the current situation, the filling of its offices with people of Jewish origin would in general mean a heavy burden and inhibition. The church must therefore demand the restraint of its Jewish Christians from the offices. "

- Erlangen report on the Aryan paragraph

Web links

Commons : Paul Althaus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. André Fischer: Between Testimony and Zeitgeist. The political theology of Paul Althaus in the Weimar Republic. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, p. 580.
  2. a b Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 13.
  3. Uwe Swarat: Althaus, Paul (1888–1966) . In: Helmut Burkhardt and Uwe Swarat (ed.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation . tape 1 . R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal 1992, ISBN 3-417-24641-5 , p. 54 .
  4. Member entry by Prof. Dr. Paul Althaus (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  5. ^ Paul Althaus: The death penalty as a problem of Christian ethics, part 2. Verlag of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in commission at CH Beck, Munich 1955.
  6. Complete quote from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 13.