ABSTRACT
Werner Elert (1885–1954) was one of the most prominent Lutheran theologians in the first half of the twentieth century, during the golden age of the so-called “Luther renaissance” that had begun in the previous century. New scholarly editions of the Reformer’s works prompted an increasing number of analyses of his life and theology. Elert was one of the most original, productive, and important representatives of the new Lutheran theology that was generated by the Luther renaissance. He was active as historian and systematic theologian, as researcher and as teacher. Like his contemporary Karl Barth, who had laid the foundations for a new epoch in Protestant theology around 1920, Elert was formed by the cultural crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century. Like the dialectical theologians, he rejected the synthesis between theology and Idealist philosophy that had dominated Protestant theology in the nineteenth century. In his theology and his ecclesiastical attitude, however, he represented a clear and well thought-out alternative to Karl Barth and the dialectical theology. When Hitler came to power in 1933, German Protestantism was divided. Elert was one of those who looked positively on the National Socialists’ accession to power.
