Christoph Schrempf (April 28, 1860 – February 13, 1944) was a German evangelical theologian and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Life

Christoph Schrempf was a pastor and writer from Besigheim, Germany. He had a difficult childhood due to his father's alcoholism. His mother suffered from the violence until she fled, taking the children. Perhaps this made the young Christoph Schrempf sensitive to all forms of violence, including hidden violence. In his youth, Schrempf was an avid Bible reader. He studied religion and was vicar and assistant teacher in Tübingen. The normal path of a Protestant Württemberg Pastor seemed predetermined. He read the Bible with a critical scientific eye and explored the historical background of biblical texts. The question of truth and the correct understanding of scripture and confession kept him very busy. Schrempf became a pastor in the small village Leuzendorf in Hohenlohe, in the deanery

Blaufelden Blaufelden is a municipality in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europ ...

. He tried to be a good pastor. But in 1892, he fell into a severe crisis of faith. When preparing for a baptismal sermon doubts surfaced. During the service, he refused the prescribed

creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

of Baptism. No one really noticed but he later shared his doubts and reasons with his congregation during church service. The churchgoers were shocked and outraged. The

church council A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word meani ...

demanded his dismissal. In 1892 he was dismissed from the parish, because of "misconduct against the accepted official business". The dismissal was a trauma for Schrempf, as he believed, his sincerity should be respected. Twenty years later the omission of creed of pastoral reasons in exceptional cases was allowed. He was not only radical in its search for truth to his church and its traditions but also a radical lover of peace. The Veterans' Association in Leuze glorified the War of 1871 and wanted to devote the town flags to war, but Schrempf refused to bless the flags. He was even more radical than the former peace societies. In a lecture at the 1886

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Branch of the

German Peace Society The German Peace Society (german: Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft (DFG)) was founded in 1892 in Berlin. In 1900 it moved its headquarters to Stuttgart. It still exists and is known as the ''Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegne ...

, he said: ''tolerated Christianity and war are not. The

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

must be obliged by saying of Jesus, on the so-called right of losing self-defense. Who lives in the conviction that the war is wrong, which must and consequences and explain to the magistrate that he would not bear arms and that he would rather die himself before he was ready to kill his enemy.'' Schrempf was convinced that a Christian must be a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

. This pacifist theology of peace was in his time very lonely and isolated position. The Christians of his time went to war in good conscience and only a few pastors preached the just peace as he did. ''To overcome war and violence is an enduring task.'' Schrempf also suggested that: ''the violence against women, violence in schools, the right-wing violence on our streets, the violence against foreigners must be overcome.''

Collected works

His collected works appeared in Frommann Verlag, Stuttgart, 1930–1940, in 16 volumes. Posthumously published in several volumes, edited by Otto Engel in Fromman, other writings under the title "religion without religion" (Volume 3, 1947). *1: For the Church against the Church (1930) *2: Still under the spell of the Church (1930) *3: Still under the spell of morals (1931) *4: About the Rubicon (1931) *5: Confrontations 1 - Kant, Lessing (1931) *6: Confrontations 2, Goethe (1932) *7: Still on this side - even beyond (1932) *8: II Even beyond this world and beyond - this side. (1933) *9: Conflict 3 - Socrates, Nietzsche, Paul (1934) *10: IV disputes - Søren Kierkegaard, Part One (1935) *11: Ditto Part Two (1935) *12: ditto - Part Three (1935) *13: My Testament with Portrait (1937) *14: The basis of ethics. Treatise on the basis of the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Tübingen made price task (Spring 1884). Edited by Otto Engel (1936) *15: Many things on the road. Edited by Otto Engel (1939) *16: The Legacy. Edited by Otto Engel. (1940)

Translator

Schrempf translated many books written by Soren Kierkegaard into German beginning in 1890.Books by Schrempf Online Books
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Honors

The Christoph Schrempf High School (Christoph-Schrempf Gymnasium) in Besigheim, Germany, is named after him.

Sources

Books

Online

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schrempf, Christoph 1860 births 1944 deaths People from Besigheim People from the Kingdom of Württemberg German philosophers German male writers