Toward a Theory of the Struggle of Spirit

TOWARD A THEORY OF THE STRUGGLE OF SPIRIT
Christoph Schrempf
Translated from the German
by Joseph Randolph

CONTINENTAL EDITIONS
Religion / Philosophy
Paperback
111 pgs., 5x8 in.

Releases May 2026

'Toward a Theory of the Struggle of Spirit' presents the first English translation of a late, compact work by Christoph Schrempf (1860–1944), a German theologian, pastor, and moral radical whose career unfolded along the fault lines of conscience, language, and public responsibility. Written after decades of conflict with church institutions and cultural orthodoxies, the text distills Schrempf’s mature position on truth, personality, irony, and ethical seriousness into a sequence of rigorously argued reflections.

Composed in the aftermath of the First World War and published by Eugen Diederichs in 1922, the book addresses a society saturated with slogans, professional positions, and fluent moral speech. Schrempf approaches this condition as a practical-spiritual problem rather than a theoretical one. He asks how ideals gain legitimacy among people, how speech acquires authority, and how a person remains faithful to truth without sliding into coercion, vanity, faction, or theatrical virtue. His answer centers on 'Darleben': the demand that convictions appear through conduct, restraint, timing, and cost, rather than through proclamation alone.

The work moves through three tightly linked concerns: the danger of ideals spoken beyond the speaker’s capacity to bear them; the disciplined use of irony as a servant of seriousness rather than spectacle; and the virtue Schrempf calls 'Sachlichkeit,' a matter-centered fidelity that subordinates rivalry, allegiance, and reputation to the demands of the claim itself. Throughout, the “struggle of spirit” appears less as a contest between opponents than as spirit’s claim upon a person, a process that renders applause irrelevant and victory beside the point.

This translation preserves Schrempf’s long, accumulative sentences, whose pressure and cadence form part of the argument itself, and key terms receive consistent, context-sensitive treatment. The edition includes an introduction situating the text within Protestant conscience tradition, Kierkegaard’s critique of Christendom, nineteenth-century ethical thought, and early existential concerns with lived authenticity.

Long absent from both English-language discourse and modern German collected editions, 'Toward a Theory of the Struggle of Spirit' restores a voice of severe clarity and uncommon moral intelligence—one that treats truth as something a life must answer for, publicly and without guarantee.