The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945Analyzing the previously unexplored religious views of the Nazi elite, Richard Steigmann-Gall argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it. He demonstrates that many participants in the Nazi movement believed that the contours of their ideology were based on a Christian understanding of Germany's ills and their cure. A program usually regarded as secular in inspiration - the creation of a racialist 'people's community' embracing antisemitism, antiliberalism and anti-Marxism - was, for these Nazis, conceived in explicitly Christian terms. His examination centers on the concept of 'positive Christianity,' a religion espoused by many members of the party leadership. He also explores the struggle the 'positive Christians' waged with the party's paganists - those who rejected Christianity in toto as foreign and corrupting - and demonstrates that this was not just a conflict over religion, but over the very meaning of Nazi ideology itself. |
Contents
1 | |
Positive Christianity The Doctrine of the Time of Struggle | 13 |
Above the Confessions Bridging the Religious Divide | 51 |
Blood and Soil The Paganist Ambivalence | 86 |
National Renewal Religion and the New Germany | 114 |
Completing the Reformation The Protestant Reich Church | 155 |
Public Need before Private Greed Building the Peoples Community | 190 |
Gottglaubig Assent of the antiChristians? | 218 |
The Holy Reich Conclusion | 261 |
Primary Sources | 268 |
272 | |
285 | |
Other editions - View all
The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 Richard Steigmann-Gall Limited preview - 2003 |
The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 Richard Steigmann-Gall No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
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