Hermann Sasse

(17 July 1895 – 9 August 1976) was a Lutheran theologian and author. He was considered one of the foremost confessional Lutheran theologians of the 20th century.

Born in Sonnenwald, Germany, Sasse began his career under the influence of the classical liberalism of his teachers, such as Adolf Harnack. After spending a year as an exchange student at Hartford Theological Seminary in the United States (1925-1926), Sasse returned to Germany to take up a teaching position at University of Erlangen. During this period, he became an active participant in the ecumenical movement. In the early 1930s, he emerged as a vocal critic of the National Socialist Party and Germany's new chancellor, Adolf Hitler. While he did not sign the 1934 Barmen Declaration, he did author, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, the first draft of the lesser known Bethel Confession of 1933.

In 1949, Sasse emigrated to Adelaide, Australia, where he served on the faculty of the seminary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (later merged into the Lutheran Church of Australia) until his death in 1976.


Propers for Herman Sasse - Theologian and Teacher

The Collect.

O GOD, who hast endowed thy servant Herman Sasse with clarity of faith and holiness of life: Grant us to keep with steadfast minds the faith which he taught, and in his fellowship to be made partakers of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


The Epistle - Wisdom 7:7-14.

I CALLED upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her. Neither compared I unto her any precious stone, because all gold in respect of her is as a little sand, and silver shall be counted as clay before her. I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for the light that cometh from her never goeth out. All good things together came to me with her, and innumerable riches in her hands. And I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom goeth before them: and I knew not that she was the mother of them. I learned diligently, and do communicate her liberally: I do not hide her riches. For she is a treasure unto men that never faileth: which they that use become the friends of God, being commended for the gifts that come from learning.


The Gospel - St. John 17:18-23.

AS thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me though their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.


Reference and Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Sasse
http://www.commonprayer.org/calend/propers/com_theo.cfm

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