Ethelbert Stauffer

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Ethelbert Stauffer (born May 8, 1902, in Friedelsheim; died August 1, 1979 in Erlangen) was a German Protestant theologian and numismatist.

[edit] Life

In the 1930s Stauffer was a professor of New Testament Studies and director of Ancient History Studies at the University of Bonn. In 1943, he was removed from post because of his anti-Fascist stance, but returned in 1946. He undertook much research into the relationship between the Roman sources and early Christianity. He proved that the Easter liturgy does not follow the Gospel but the burial ritual of Caesar.

Stauffer was a Christian universalist, believing that ultimately all people would be saved. He believed that God's irresistible grace and will are destined to overcome even the most obdurate opposition.[1] He also taught that divine punishment after death was real, but that it was not arbitrary or vindictive, but remedial and limited as to duration, essentially Purgatory.[2]

[edit] Bibliography

• Christus und die Caesaren, Hamburg 1952
• Christ and the Caesars. Historical sketches (translated by Kaethe Gregor Smith and Ronald Gregor Smith). London: SCM-Press, 1955
• Jerusalem und Rom im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, Bern 1957
• Jesus: Gestalt und Geschichte, 1957
• New Testament Theology, 1963