Paul Althaus was a German Lutheran theologian, son of Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus

Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus

Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus was a German Lutheran theologian, born at Fallersleben . He was a professor at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig. He was the father of Paul Althaus...

. He was born in Obershagen

Uetze

Uetze is a municipality in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Fuhse, approximately 35 km east of Hanover....

 in the Province of Hanover

Province of Hanover

The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...

, and he died in Erlangen. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professor of practical and systematic theology at the University of Göttingen, becoming full professor two years later. Althaus was moderately critical of Lutheran Orthodoxy

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 Roman Catholicism after the...

 and evangelical-leaning Neo-Lutheranism

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...

. He termed it a “mistake” to “defend the authenticity and infallibility of the Bible.”

Works

• Luther und das Deutschtum [Luther and Germanness], Leipzig 1917
• Kirche und Volkstum. Der völkische Wille im Lichte des Evangeliums [Church and Nationality: the National Will in the Light of the Gospel], Gütersloh 1928
• Grundriß der Ethik [Outline of Ethics], Erlangen 1931 (earlier edition: Leitsätze)
• Die deutsche Stunde der Kirche [The Church's German Period], Göttingen 1934
• Obrigkeit und Führertum. Wandlungen des evangelischen Staatsethos in Deutschland [Authority and Führerism: Changes in the Evangelical State Ethos in Germany], Gütersloh 1936
• Der Christenglaube und das Sterben [Christian Faith and Death], Gütersloh 1941
• Vom Sterben und vom Leben [On Death and Life], Gütersloh 1950 (earlier edition: Der Christenglaube und das Sterben)
• Die Theologie Martin Luthers [The Theology of Martin Luther], Gütersloh 1962
• Die Christliche Wahrheit. Lehrbuch der Dogmatik [Christian Truth: Textbook of Dogmatics], 8th edition, Gütersloh 1969
• Die Ethik Martin Luthers [The Ethics of Martin Luther]