Hermann Sasse

Hermann Otto Erich Sasse (17 July 1895 – 9 August 1976) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and author. He was considered one of the foremost confessional Lutheran theologians of the 20th century.[1]

Hermann Otto Erich Sasse
Born(1895-07-17)17 July 1895
Sonnewalde, Lausitz, Germany
Died9 August 1976(1976-08-09) (aged 81)
Adelaide, South Australia
OccupationPastor, theologian, author
Notable work
Here We Stand
This Is My Body
Spouse(s)Charlotte Margarete Naumann
Theological work

Born in Sonnewalde, Germany, Sasse began his career under the influence of the theological liberalism of his teachers, such as Adolf Harnack. He was ordained on 13 June 1920 in St Matthew's Church in Berlin and thereafter served several parishes in Brandenburg, He spent a year (1925-1926) as an exchange student at Hartford Theological Seminary in the United States, where he earned a master's degree. Sasse returned to Germany to take up a teaching position at University of Erlangen.[1]

During this period, he became an active participant in the ecumenical movement. In the early 1930s, he emerged as a vocal critic of the National Socialist Party and Germany's new chancellor, Adolf Hitler. While he did not sign the 1934 Barmen Declaration, he did author, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, the first draft of the lesser known Bethel Confession of 1933.[1]

In 1949, Sasse emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, where he served on the faculty of Luther Seminary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (later merged into the Lutheran Church of Australia), retiring in 1969. He died in a fire at his home in 1976.[1]

Selected bibliography
  • This Is My Body: Luther's Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001) ISBN 1-57910-766-4
  • The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters of Hermann Sasse: 1941-1976 (Concordia Publishing House, 2003) ISBN 0-7586-0004-6
  • The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters of Hermann Sasse: 1927-1939 (Concordia Publishing House, 2002) ISBN 0-570-01640-1
  • Christ and His Church: Essays by Hermann Sasse: Vol. 1, Union and Confession (Office of the President LCMS 1997)

References
  1. Schild, Maurice (2005). "Sasse, Hermann Otto Erich (1895–1976)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Supplementary Volume. Melbourne University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  • Werner Klän (Hg.): Der Theologe Hermann Sasse (1895–1976). Einblicke in seine internationale Wirkung als Exeget, Kirchenhistoriker, Systematiker und Ökumeniker, Oberurseler Hefte Ergänzungsband 24, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8469-0352-0


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