Karl Adam (theologian)
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Karl Adam (1876 - 1966) was a German Catholic theologian of the early 20th century.
Adam was born in Bavaria in 1876. He attended the Philosophical and Theological Seminary at Regensburg and was ordained in 1900. Adam spent the next two years doing parish work. Adam received his Doctorate at the University of Munich in 1904
Adam eventually became a professor and taught at Munich, Strasbourg and Tuebingen.
Adam wrote extensively on theology. His books include: "Tertullian's Conception of the Church," "Eucharistic Teaching of St. Augustine," "Christ Our Brother," "The Son of God," "The Spirit of Catholicism," "Roots of the Reformation," and "One And Holy."
Adam is best known for his 1924 work entitled "The Spirit of Catholicism". It has been widely translated, and is still available in print today. In "The Spirit Of Catholicism", Adam communicates with the lay population about the Catholic faith and the church's role as the keeper of the faith.
According to a recent article by Denzinger, a professor at the University of Bamberg, Germany, and a book by Robert A. Krieg, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, Adam was a supporter of the Nazi doctrine of "blood and soil." He considered the Jewish "race" inferior and endorsed Hitler's laws to keep the German blood from being polluted by it. Jesus Christ, he explains, miraculously escaped being a Jew though being born by a Jewish maiden. Adam was never in trouble with the N.S. party or later with the French occupational administration. He was not dismissed from his professorship after the Nazi's defeat in 1945, but continued to teach at the University of Tuebingen.
His influence on a whole generation of students of theology was considerable. He had spread his anti-Semitism to many of them.
