During the Church Conference of Treys a on Aug. 27-30.1945, Martin Niemoller spoke on behaIf of the Confessing Church movement. In his statement he implies that the church and its leaders are only taking responsibility for losing the war and for people following Nazis in the first place. In this he suggests, that the Nazis had success in gaining support from Protestant Christians because in their hearts and minds, however twisted, they "simply believed, after all, that they were on the right path!" In following that path, preached to them both from the church pulpits and from the political podium, they believed their Christian hope was realized and fulfilled as they understood it and experienced it Niemoller also suggests that the church was aware of the dangers and did not warn the people, and when it tried it, was too late (Gerlach 224-225).

Next, in October of the same year, the leadership of the Evangelical Church of Germany was meeting in Stuttgart and drafted a confession which still did not mention the demise of the Jews, but apologized for the way in which the church knew what was happening and even tried to tell people to resist Nazis, but did not do it courageously, faithfully, joyously or passionately enough. Niemoller emphasized that asking for forgiveness from God would re-empower the church to move forward in a spirit of forgiving and forgiveness (Gerlach 226-227).

So the confession of guilt presented in the company of representatives of the World Council of Churches at Stuttgart amounted primarily to a statement which would provide a way to simply move on. Within the next year, two statements from different Protestant groups in support of the declaration added assertions about the church's lack of response to the plight of the Jews, recognizing that the churches had adopted anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi policies.

The Reich Council of Brethren of the German Evangelical Church meeting in Darmstadt at their regular Synod on Apr. 8, 1948, drafted a "Statement on the Jewish Question." It concluded that Israel (the Jews) crucified Christ, rejecting its election from God as the chosen people. In doing so election from God is transferred to the church as a new Israel. The statement reasoned that the Church continues to wait for Israel to assume its rightful place with God by acknowledging Christ's death and resurrection as their only hope. The statement asserts, "God's judgment follows Israel to the present day. . . That God will not be mocked is the silent sermon of the Jewish faith, a warning to us (Christians), a reminder to the Jews about whether or not they want to convert to Him in whom alone their salvation stands," which implies that the Holocaust was an instrument of that judgment (Gerlach 228 and Brumlik 174).

The dimensions of meaning recorded in the Darmstadt Declaration of the Confessing Church Council of Brethren of 1949 seeks to exhibit the claim that its testimony squares with the events framed by the Holocaust. We are confronted, however, with its narrow theological outlook, and its conclusions are problematic for any future progress against anti-Semitism. The Declaration attempts to reject the German Christian doctrine but, once again, reinforces the deeds of anti-Jewish prejudice, and shockingly validates the Nazi philosophy which the Confessing Church Council sought to refute. As Micha Brumlik summarizes the direction of the Darmstadt Declaration, he recognizes that it "attributed the deaths in the gas chambers to God, thereby validating the supremacy of the new, "true" Israel of Christian faith and implying, by logical necessity, that the murderous deeds of the SS had invalidated the' Jewish faith" (173-174).

This is the persistent thinking and feeling that enabled Protestant Christians to accommodate the killing machine of Hitler and confirm their hardness against Jews and Judaism. While these views would be challenged and changed over time, their persistence through the war and the Holocaust gives evidence to the depth of their feeling in the ultimate hope which the church preached and which defined them. Any statements that sought to moderate the Christian's approach to the Jews and Judaism was largely met with contempt and opposition. Any suggestions that Christianity did not supercede Judaism and was not the superior of the two faiths was threatening to the very concept of "we are what we are in (Christian) hope." These discussions raised the critical question:

If Judaism is equal to Christianity as a religion based upon the Bible, then what is the need for Christianity? The best that the Confessing Church could muster in their fight against Hitler was that Christianity could not be defined only in German volkish terms, but must remain universal. That was the extent of their anti-Nazi campaign. If only argued from the standpoint of the Nazi anti-Semitic program, the Confessing Church only advocated giving converted Jews a place among the faithful volk of Germany. As to the rest of the Jewish population, give them the opportunity to convert, but if they persist, then it is they who bring about their own judgment.

And to say a few words about the extensive source material we used, there are three in particular that deserve to be highlighted at the start. Stanley Milgrim's work on obedience to authority sheds light on how the authority of Christian proclamation can be utilized to legitimize destructive behavior in the name of goodness and faithfulness.

And in his extensive study of the mechanisms of moral disengagement, Albert Bandura identifies several sets of disengagement practices that lead or allow people to harm others. These categories can inform us about how groups or individuals who normally would consider themselves good and decent turn against others, often based on their own goodness or decency. He asserts that people function as moral agents within a social context. They treat others humanely because of moral standards they have adopted as their own. While the development of moral standards begins from sources and experiences outside of oneself, soon persons will regulate their own behavior based upon how the consequences of moral actions either give them a .sense of self-worth in a positive sense, or how they are sanctioned by negative consequences. Even when persons have developed healthy moral standards, they can choose to disengage themselves from those standards through the practices and mechanisms that Bandura outlines (we will come back to this also once more at the very end of our reasoning).

This also resonated for us with Ervin Staub's "personal goal theory"; as people use those resources in biased way, they do not always realize that they have drifted from a goal that is primarily good.

Examining certain elements of faith, in this case Christian hope, thus shows that they can act independently (as seen also in our Case Study about the Vatican’s reaction to the Jewish Holocast), disengaged from the more benevolent context of the religion, which can lead toward destructive ends.  
 

Ideas Have a History

Holocaust historian Saul Friedlander writes: At the end of the second chapter of Mein Kampf comes the notorious statement of faith: "Today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." In Eckart, and in Hitler as he came to state his creed from 1924 on, redemptive anti-Semitism found its ultimate expression. (Friedlander 98)

That Luther wrote words that parallel the antiSemitic behavior and sentiments of those to follow him in Nazi Germany is evident to the editors of his work: in 1971(Luther Works 268). Luther gives seven specific instructions indicating how Jews should be greeted and treated: First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not bum, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. . .. Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. . .. Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them . . . . Fomth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. . .. Fifth, I advise that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. . .Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. . .. Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. . .. Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread.in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen. 3:19). (Works 47: 268-272)

Luther also chillingly states, "So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then. (Which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them" (Works 47: 267). Luther asserts that Jews murdered Jesus and should therefore be executed as murderers. This accusation finds its root in the Gospel where the people who call for Jesus' crucifixion are quoted as saying to Pilate that "his blood be on us and upon our children" (Matt. 27:25).

Luther squandered the opportunity to cease persecution of Jews by Christians. Luther's perpetuation of anti-Semitic doctrine, practice, and proclamation continues in acts and writings of anti-Semites. His words are used to substantiate their views when questioned about their practice. In Oct. 1932, Hitler is heard to have said in a conversation at his fiat in Munich, "I do insist on the certainty that sooner or later once we hold power - Christianity will be overcome and the German church established. Yes, the German church, without a Pope and without the Bible, and Luther, if he could be with us, would give us his blessing" (Soeeches 369).

The political connection of Protestantism in Germany planted seeds of nationalism cultivated around the love of one's local territory. This served to wean Christians from their allegiance toward distant Rome. Protestantism provided the means for individuals to have personal access to the sacred things of Christianity: the Scriptures, prayer, and forgiveness. Personal holiness practiced according to one's own interpretation of the Scriptures and Protestant doctrines provided ownership of one's spirituality. With ownership comes responsibility and anxiety over the correct way to follow. Questions arose concerning the correct path of faith to follow now that faith was made more personal. Obviously. Luther provided some guidance along with others in other reform movements like that of John Calvin in Switzerland.

Thus just as Luther continued his antiSemitism, the rank and file continued their feelings about Jews in practice and beliefs.The Protestant movement was eager to find new converts both from the Roman tradition as well as from the Jews. As Jews resisted these attempts to convert, Protestants, fueled with evangelical fervor, responded with anger instead of compassion, reigniting their hatred for the Jew. Because the early Protestant movement provided a vehicle for nationalistic pride, those who would not convert were seen as anti-nationalist as well as anti-Protestant. Jews, because they were always viewed as alien people living in a host country, were poised to be repressed by the newly formed Protestant domains. Newly reformed Christians fought for their views, sometimes paying with their lives. Rejection of their faith by Jews was received as a challenge.

After the Thirty Year's War, Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705) was a Lutheran pastor, obsessed with self-examination of one's soul in relation to living a Christian life. He advocated a purer practice of the Christian faith. His ideas aexpressed in a small book titled Pia Desideria [pious Wishes] written in 1675 which struck a deep chord in those who read it. In light of the problems which the church experienced with church-state relations and the new orthodoxy, Pia Desideria cut right to the heart of the matter.

Spener writes that Jews do not respond to the Gospel because they cannot believe God would ordain the behavior they see in the lives of those professing the Christian faith. What he perceives as the Jew's "hard-heartedness" toward Christianity, he lays at the door of the church itself (Spener 68). Hence, it is the Christian's apostasy that is a hindrance to the conversion of Jews. If Christians would renew their faith and practice it properly, then Jews and others would be more apt to turn to its benefits.

Spener wrote a supplement to the Pia that speaks of the expectation of Jews to convert. He indicates that Christians who come from countries in which Jews live should learn about them and the points of difference between Jews and Christians in order that Christians might minister more effectively to them. Spener does not express the animosity toward Jews that Luther harbored, but Spener was a Lutheran who knew his Luther wen and appeals to him often on other counts. While the evangelical spirit perceives a beneficial goal for the Jew, the Jews perceived the evangelist's goals as an affront to their tradition.

Ironicly Pope Pius XII made a similar announcement in his June 1943 Mystici Corporis Christi, that where God expects Christians to love all people, if Jews (or anybody else for that matter) did not convert, their destiny layout of the reach of the Church because they had broken the covenant. (Mystici Corporis Christi, paragraph 5.)

The Pia of Spener however is also noted for launching the line of thinking that has come to be called Pietism. Spener calls fur diligent reading of the Scriptur'es by all Christians. Since, the Bible was now in the vernacular and readily available to the populace as were other books and commentaries, Spener advocated a daily discipline in reading the Bible at home with the family present.

Spener restated the Reformation's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers. All Christians were to see themselves as ministers with a ministry to perform and proclaim. The life one lived projected the depth of one's faith and vice versa. Along with this understanding, he emphasized that the practice of Christianity was more important than knowledge of Christianity. He wished to convey to others that Christianity was subjective and not objective in its nature. Christianity wasn't about God it was of God.

To better understand the practical application of Pietism, Spener stressed the importance of education for all persons. Knowledge was important but not an end to itself. He advocated all education and preaching be done in German and not Latin. He writes, "it would be desirable that disputations be held in the schools in the German language so that students may learn to use the terminology which is suited to this purpose, for it will be difficult for them in the ministry when they have never had any practice in this" (Spener 109). The use of German provided a distinctly unifying factor to the development of German nationalism that even Spener never imagined,  but Pietists did not understand that Jews chose to forego Christianity not so much because of the way they were seeing the Christian faith practiced but because of the depth of faith already present within the Jewish community.

Later Friedrich Schleiermacher who was trained in the Pietist Tradition, emerged as "the father of modem Protestant Theology" (Tillich 387). He sought to reconcile the experience of religion with the pursuit of philosophy which emerged during the Enlightenment. As theologian Paul Tillich suggests, Schleiermacher made great strides in arguing that ''the deepest philosophical thoughts are completely identical with my most intimate religious feeling"(388).

For Schleiermacher, the ground of everything was to be found in God. This is not to say that God is everything, but that God is present in everything. He further stated, "What we feel and perceive in the stirrings of religion is not the nature of things but their operation upon us" (Religion 93).

Yet much of what was being emphasized in the Enlightenment was the separation or detachment of subject and object through scientific method. The Deists, such as John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, advocated distancing the Divine from current human endeavor. Schleiermacher suggests that this is a false separation, and that religion and science are by their nature inseparable. They exist together in the realm of our experience in life. Tillich sums him up this way: [Religion] is, one may say, the typical idealistic anticipation of eternal life in which there is certainly no religion but in which God is present in every moment. . .. It means considering every moment of our secular life as filled with the divine presence, not pushing the presence into a Sunday Service and otherwise forgetting it. (397)

Religion is not to be relegated to some institutional and ritualistic representation, it is to be present in all things including philosophical and scientific endeavors, perhaps even especially in those realms. Here Schleiermacher's roots in Pietism seem most evident ihis personal subjective involvement in all aspects of life.

Schleiermacher's views on Jews and Judaism are expressed in On Religion where he writes about the form of other religions. He classifies Judaism as a dead religion, yet one that possesses a fine, childlike character. When stripped of its trappings, he concludes:

What you find is an attitude that the infinite distinctly reacts against everything finite that tries to assert its own will. This is the way everything is viewed: growth and decay, fortune and misfortune. Even within the human soul there is simply a continuous interchange between man's own independent action and his being directly influenced by the deity. (On Relimon 506)

This childlike character is viewed negatively in contrast with the "more glorious, more sublime, more worthy of mature humanity," found in Christianity. Once again, Christianity is positively defined in negative contrast to its Jewish counterpart. In his systematic theological work The Christian Faith. he echoes these sentiments. (37)

 Richard Niebuhr writes in his introductory essay to The Christian Faith: Schleiermacher's inner being was deeply agitated by the political fortunes of Germany, and Prussia in particular. Ever since Napoleon's invasion of German territory, he was convinced that the fortunes of Protestantism and Prussia were intertwined and threatened alike by French imperialism. From his pulpits in Halle and Berlin, he delivered outspoken sermons that helped to create the rising national and liberal consciousness of Prussia and worked in other ways to encourage war with France and the restoration of German freedom. He was, however, by no means a simple nationalist but belonged to that group of men led by Baron von Stein who advocated a fundamental social and constitutional reform of Prussia and the institution of a system of national representation to supercede the organization by class and estates under an absolutist monarchy. (xv)

His influence helped to mold the hearts and minds of the people to consider what it means to be a German in the ever emerging world of post-Enlightenment Europe. He preached on several occasions about nationalistic endeavors in relationship to Germany's faithfulness to God. Interestingly, hope emerged as a supporting theme.

Apocalyptic expressions of Christian hope were present throughout Christian history including the development of the Protestant traditions. During the early nineteenth century a strong resurgent emphasis and development of these expressions emerged in contrast to the more rational approach of Schleiermacher. This emphasis became know as dispensationalism because of its elaborate schemes of formulating "dispensations" or different eras in which God behaves differently in order to bring about a just solution for the ills of a sinful creation. It arose as a response to the chaotic turmoil of the Enlightenment mentioned above in our comments about Schleiermacher's contributions. While Schleiermacher approached the turmoil with a tempered, systematic and reasoned response, many others perceived in. the turmoil signs that the end of time was near. Hope for them was found searching the Scriptures as the Word of God, which contained in its entirety a chronological plan for God's timetable of world events. For them the Bible not only contained accounts of the creation of the earth and humanity and accounts of historical activity in the lives of God's creatures, but also contained the accounts necessary to determine when God would draw creation's time to a close ushering in a new era, a new creation that would have no end. Hope for these followers was not found anywhere in this earthly life. Hope could be found only in the promise of the possibility of being included in a new world to come by interpreting correctly the cryptic apocalyptic "prophesy" of the Bible. For some, even the established church was viewed as corrupt and unredeemable.

While this movement did not originate on the mainland of Europe, those who formulated this theological system were European and spread these prophesies throughout Europe and the United States. This system was an entirely new development drawing upon various Biblical concepts found in the apocalyptic literature. Even though they were anti-church, those who heard their message were often members or clergy of the established denominations and incorporated dispensational theology into their teaching and practice of the faith.

According to James Rhodes, ''National Socialist radicalism [characterized by millenarian hope] was a more or less familiar mode of consciousness that has arisen frequently in Western Society and which, therefore may be a universal human potential that could be actualized again, in other times and places"(18).

During the early decades of the twentieth century, fueled by the growth of dispensational theology, there was a great deal of discussion and debate going on across the globe which led to the establishment of Christian Fundamentalism. This movement was the result of a further response to the growing influence of science, liberal ideas and the growing popularity of Marxist political thought sweeping Western Culture.

Concerned and outraged Christian leaders banded together to defend the faith by publishing and proliferating 12 pamphlets on "The Five Fundamentals." These five fundamentals became the guide and the litmus test of a "true Christian." The five fundamentals were: 1) Biblical inerrancy, 2) the divinity of Jesus through the Virgin Birth, 3) the bodily resurrection of Jesus, 4) Jesus' death as a substitute for human sin, and 5) Jesus' return soon, ushering in the Millennium of peaceful reign in which the faithful would be rewarded. The faithful would include 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel sealed for survival and who, when the Lord Jesus returned for the Millennium, would welcome him with praise and thanksgiving, proclaiming him finally as their Messiah.

Thus, Martin Luther's reforms, which led to separation from the church in Rome with the Pope as the singular head, began to condition people in localized domains of Germany to understand their existence as an entity to themselves planting the early seeds of nationaligm The printing of Luther's German translation of the Bible in the vernacular of their home language, added a wider sense of separation from the Latin of Rome, instilling a greater hope of self-determining their future. Spener's Pietist reforms further advanced the feeling of nationalism as children were encouraged to be taught in German.
Although Martin Luther broke from much of the structure and theology of the Roman Catholic Church, his attitudes about Jews show that he ultimately returned to some of the more severe expressions of anti-Semitism. While his initial response to Jews was to reach out with the fiiendliness of the Gospel message of hope, he turned his pen against them when they still did not respond to the call to profess Christ as Messiah.

Millennial ‚hope‘ would drive much of the Protestant reform, from Luther through Schleiermacher, in advancing a future hope based on justification by fiUth through the grace of God. This form of hope always anticipated a greater realization of fulfillment for a future time, which motivated followers to act in the present to help bring about the millennial hope promised by God through the Scriptures.

In fact the stress experienced by Germans in the post-World War I period, caused them to take steps down what Ervin Staub calls, "a continuum of destruction" as they sought to find hope out of their despair (Staub 20-23). German Protestants began to confuse the Nationalistic and racially based message of Hitler and the Nazis with the dynamics of Christian hope as they understood them. For them, hope became a divine selection of Aryan Germany to lead the way toward a better life fulfilling God's promises (Bergen 11). Christian hope, looking forward yet tied to present behavior and to past traditions, became psychologically bound to the Nazi ideology, which emphasized that sacrifices would have to be made now in order to gain greater rewards in the future.

Jay Gonen, a psycho-historian, writes, identifying the major psychological ingredients of Hitler's ideology and exploring their full meaning is of vast importance because they struck such a responsive chord among many Germans. This responsiveness alone suggests not only the likely involvement of unconscious motivation, but also that an older history may have created a receptivity and even cravings and yearning for certain myths and mottoes. (7)
 
 

Bibliography and Works Cited

 

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