Paul Althaus

1888-1966. Lutheran scholar. Born in Obershagen, he taught in Göttingen (1914), Rostock (1920), and Erlangen (1925). He was editor of Das Neue Testament Deutsch: Göttinger Bibelwerk and contributed extensively to New Testament studies by his expositions particularly of the Pauline Epistles. He became involved in the Synoptic problem for which he wrote Fact and Faith in the Kerygma Today, a translation of his Die sogenannte Kerygma und der historische Jesus. His chief contribution to systematic theology was Die christliche Wahrheit: Lehrbuch der Dogmatik, which reached its eighth edition in 1969. The doctrines of justification by faith in the theology of Martin Luther, law and gospel, and the problem of the relationship between church and state according to Luther are some of Althaus's major concerns. Die Ethik Martin Luthers combined his interests in Luther and ethics, the latter evidenced also in his Grundriss der Ethik. He investigated also Luther's doctrine of the Lord's Supper (Die lutherische Abendsmahlslehre). Although a Lutheran, Althaus frequently differed with Luther, not least in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. One of his major emphases was on eschatology. His work on this subject, Die letzten Dinge, was in its ninth edition in 1964. His sermons, some of which were published, and his devotional writings added to his fame.