Martin Luther, German Saviour: German Evangelical Theological Factions and the Interpretation of Luther, 1917-1933

194 Pages·2000·11.37 MB·English

by  James M. Stayer

Martin Luther, German baviour
German Evangelical Theological Factions and
the Interpretation of Luther, 1917-1933
The Protestant ruling classes of the pre-First World War German Em-
pire took for granted that Martin Luther was the greatest of all Ger-
man men. In the early twentieth century, however, Luther came
under attack from Catholics, liberals, and socialists, groups who be-
came the governing coalition of the Weimar Republic after Ger-
many's defeat in the First World War. Protestant conservatives
struggled to win back power in the Weimar years - and one object of
their battle was to restore the veneration of Martin Luther.
Theological trend-setters after the war were dogmatic or systematic
theologians. Whether men of the right like Karl Roll or men of the left
like Karl Barth, they wanted to return to Luther's fundamental Refor-
mation theology and to justification through faith alone. In the mid-
19208, however, Barth saw the dangers of Lutheran theocentrism
wedded to German nationalism and moved towards a more Re-
formed Christology and a greater critical distance from Luther. The
other six major Weimar-era theologians discussed - Karl Roll,
Friedrich Gogarten, Werner Elert, Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and
Erich Vogelsang - connected their theology to their Luther studies
and to their hopes for the rebirth of Germany after the humiliation of
the Versailles order. To differing degrees, they presented Martin
Luther as the German saviour, and all except Karl Roll, who died in
1926, worked out specifically theological reasons for supporting
Hitler when he came to power in 1933.
JAMES M. STAYER is professor of history at Queen's University.
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Martin Luther,
German Saviour
German Evangelical Theological
Factions and the Interpretation
of Luther, 1917-1933
JAMES M. STAYER
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen's University Press 2000
ISBN 0-7735-2044-9
Legal deposit second quarter 2000
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper
This book has been published with the help of a
grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences
Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada.
McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the
financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development
Program (BPIDP) for its activities. We also
acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for
the Arts for our publishing program.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Stayer, James M.
Martin Luther, German saviour: German evangelical
theological factions and the interpretation of Luther,
1917-1933
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-2044-9
i. Luther, Martin, 1483-1546. 2. Theology,
Doctrinal - Germany - History - 2Oth century.
3. Evangelicalism - Germany - History -
20th century. I. Title.
8x8065.2.583 2000 23o'-4i43'o9O4i 099-901193-6
This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc.
in 10/12 Palatino.
To Hans-Jurgen Goertz and Werner O. Packull
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 Luther Scholarship before the Great War 3
2 Karl Holl and the Origin of the Luther Renaissance 18
3 The Dialectical Theology and Luther Studies 48
4 The Confessional Lutherans at Erlangen 79
5 The Luther Renaissance in Transition: Emanuel Hirsch
and Erich Vogelsang 96
Conclusion 118
Epilogue: The German Year 1933 and Afterward 125
Notes 137
Bibliography 161
Index 171