age, Schlatter's mind and energy peaked during the 1930s, witnessed to by the publication of his magisterial Gottes Gerechtigkeit - a classic commentary on Paul's Romans letter (Romans: The Righteousness of God, trans. Siegfried S. Schatzmann,Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995). Despite his criticism of the regime Schlatter's attitude toward aspects of Nazi ideology remain ambivalent. To many of his contemporaries he problematically embraced views held by the "Deutsche Christen (German Christians)who identified their faith as one with the goals of the Reich. Weeks after the Jewish boycott of early April 1933, Schlatter could attach his signature to a public statement affirming: "We are full of gratitude to God, that he as the Lord of History has given our people in Adolf Hitler the Fuehrer and deliverer from deep trouble." (Gerdmar, p. 278.) Schlatter refused to denounce the "Aryan paragraph" which would remove Protestant clergy of Jewish descent from their pulpits, stating that: "At this time, fellowship with the compatriots (Volksgenossen) is more important than fellowship with Jewish Christians." (Gerdmar, p. 283). Furthermore, as Werner Neuer has pointed out Schlatter refused to sign the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in 1934, since to embrace God's revelation apart from the Volk would force him to “close his Bible and separate his faith from his very being".(Neuer, p. 750) Primary source research reveals Schlatter's close personal and professional relationship to Gerhard Kittel, whose anti-Semitic publications forced his removal from his teaching position following the war.(For Kittel see, Robert Ericksen, Theologians Under Hitler. Yale University Press, 1985.) Schlatter's daughter testified that Kittel and her father worked closely together in reading and editing each other's work, and despite differences with regard to aspects of Nazi policy, Schlatter “accompanied Professor Kittel on the road that he had to walk, up to the very last days before his death in May 1938.” (Gerdmar, p. 516) Overlooked in Werner Neuer's biography is the fact that while actively involved in Walter Frank's antisemitic Reichsinstitut, producing work supporting Nazi propaganda, Kittel was invited to be the memorial speaker at Schlatter's funeral.(Ericksen, p. 70, 74). According to Martin Rumscheidt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, later executed for his involvement in trying to assassinate Hitler, was greatly inspired by Schlatter: “Schlatter provided a perspective on ‘the world’ which later sustained Bonhoeffer's theology of the world. Schlatter also conveyed a sense of the ‘authority’ of Scripture which diverged significantly from the prevailing liberal-Protestant view of the