The Holy Reich : Nazi conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 /
Richard Steigmann-Gall.
- Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, (c)2003.
- 1 online resource (xvi, 294 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographies and index.
Positive Christianity: the doctrine of the time of struggle -- Above the confessions: bridging the religious divide -- Blood and soil: the paganist ambivalence -- National renewal: religion and the new Germany -- Completing the Reformation: the Protestant Reich Church -- Public need before private greed: building the people's community -- Gottgläubig: assent of the anti-Christians? -- The holy Reich: conclusion.
"Analyzing 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 "peoples' 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 a conflict not just over religion, but over the very meaning of Nazi ideology itself."--Jacket
9781461938309 9780511818103
National socialism and religion. Christianity and antisemitism. German-Christian movement--History. National socialism--Religious aspects.