Christoph Schrempf
Encyclopedia
Christoph Schrempf was an evangelical theologian and philosopher.

Life

Christoph Schrempf was a pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

 and writer from Besigheim, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. He had a difficult childhood due to his fathers 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
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 reader. He studied religion and was vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...

 and assistant teacher in Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

. The normal path of a Protestant Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

 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
Blaufelden is a municipality in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

. 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
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...

 of Baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

. 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 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
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 Branch of the German Peace Society
German Peace Society
The German Peace Society was founded in 1892. It still exists and is known as the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen...

, he said: tolerated Christianity and war are not. The Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 must be obliged by saying of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, 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
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....

. 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 - Soren 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)

Honors

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

Books

Online

Footnotes

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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