A church undone
Subtitle: documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932-1940
By: selected, translated, and introduced by Mary M. Solberg
Publisher: [publisher not identified]; Fortress Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: [Place of publication not identified]; Minneapolis [Minnesota]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 486
ISBN-13: 9781451496666; 9781451464726
Subjects: National socialism and religion; Church and state; Sources; History; German-Christian movement; Church history; RELIGION; Sermons; Christian
Description: Decades after the Holocaust, many assume that the churches in Germany resisted the Nazi regime. In fact, resistance was exceptional. Almost all Germans were Christians, and almost all Christians in Germany stood by, becoming intentionally or unintentionally complicit in Nazi policies and practices. In the early 1930s, a movement emerged within German Protestantism with the aim of fully integrating Nazi ideology, German national identity, and Christian faith. The Deutsche Christen or, "German Christians," as they were called, interpreted the Christian faith and the role of the church in society in service of the Nazi revolution. They married centuries-old Christian anti-Judaism to the Nazis' racial antisemitism and sought to eradicate all traces of Judaism from Christianity. The "German Christian" publication program, designed to advance their ideology, included books and pamphlets, radio talks and speeches, as well as liturgies and retranslations of Scripture. For the first time in English, Mary M. Solberg presents a selection of representative documents of the "German Christians." Her introduction to the volume sets the historical context of the movement and offers short introductions to each of the specific readings. The collection includes key responses critical of the German Christians by Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, among others.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 471-477) and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface and acknowledgments; title: Introduction / Mary M. Solberg; title: The original guidelines of the German Christian Faith Movement / Joachim Hossenfelder; title: The Aryan paragraph in the church and responses / various authors; title: Theological existence today! / Karl Barth; title: What the German Christians want for the church / Emanuel Hirsch; title: The history of the "German Christian" Faith Movement / Arnold Dannenmann; title: The handbook of the German Christians (1933) / German Christian National Church Union; title: The Jewish question / Gerhard Kittel; title: Our struggle / Joachim Hossenfelder; title: Speech at the Sports Palace in Berlin / Reinhold Krause; title: Declaration of the National Bishop regarding the events in the Sports Palace / Ludwig Müller; title: Outline of German theology / Friedrich Wieneke; title: German Christians: a people's book a guide to today's faith movement / Constantin Grossmann; title: The German community of Christ : the path to the German National Church / Julius Leutheuser; title: Christ in Germany's Third Reich : the nature, the path, and the goal of the German Christian Church Movement / Siegfried Leffler; title: Political christianity : on the Thuringian "German Christians" / Paul Althaus; title: God's word in German : the Sermon on the Mount, Germanized / Ludwig Müller; title: What do the German Christians want? : 118 questions and answers / Otto Brökelschen; title: Freedom of conscience / Wolf Meyer-Erlach; title: Jesus and the Jews! / Organization for German Christianity; title: The Godesberg declaration and responses / various authors; title: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? / Walter Grundmann.