LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

76 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX
Speaking to the church in a time of crisis, World War II and the demise of
confessional Lutheranism in Germany, Sasse restored a vocabulary that had
been lost to the church. It was a vocabulary of Holy Absolution, Holy
Office, Body and Blood, hiddenness of the church, and the language of
Creed and Confession. As a “lonely Lutheran” who had to leave his
homeland after World War II, Sasse rejoiced in the words of another “lonely
Lutheran”, Wilhelm Löhe: “Behold the church! It is the opposite of
loneliness … . No longer lonely, but filled, satisfied, yes blessed is he who
is one of these millions who completely and fully have Christ and with him
have heaven and earth.”
If “lonely” was a word that could describe Hermann Sasse, Lowell C.
Green in the second essay (37-64) attempts to explicate this facet of the
Sasse character. Dr Green’s contribution discusses Sasse’s relations with his
Erlangen colleagues. Green traces the developments in Germany from 1933
to 1949, certainly a time of political uncertainty. However, even before that
time the church had faced the uncertainty of a new organisation. In 1923 the
Federation of Evangelical Churches was transformed into the German
Evangelical Church. Prominent Lutherans such as Paul Althaus and Werner
Elert had supported this transformation since 85% of German Evangelical
Christians were Lutherans. It was their hope that the new German
Evangelical Church would be based on the Lutheran Confessions. Sasse
understood that this was not to be and so opposed the new structure, to the
consternation and criticism of his colleagues. In the same manner Sasse
opposed the new Nazi regime seeing that the new German Evangelical
Church was a Trojan horse that would be used by the Nazi government to
take over the church. Again he stood almost alone on the Erlangen
theological faculty in his opposition. Was Sasse difficult to get along with
Was that the reason that he was in conflict with his faculty colleagues
Perhaps. But Green gives us a deeper insight into Sasse, the “lonely
Lutheran”. The political affairs of the church, the political meddling by the
Nazi regime, and the reality of World War II and its aftermath deeply
affected Sasse. As a man of integrity and strong Lutheran confessional piety,
Sasse could not remain quiet. He simply did not “go along to get along”. As
a result, even though he was one of the faculty members whose reputation
drew students to the university, he spent most of his career at Erlangen as an
“assistant (extraordinarius) professor” rather than as a full (ordinarius)
professor. Theodore Baudler characterised Sasse at Erlangen as a “very
lonely man”. Sasse saw through the false claims of National Socialism at a
very early period, isolating himself thereby from other faculty members.
After World War II, as a leader in the de-Nazification of Erlangen
University, he drew the further wrath of his colleagues. Finally he was
completely disillusioned with the state of the Lutheran Church in Germany
which led to his emigration to Australia. Lowell Green’s chapter is perhaps