The pairing of the Third Reich with Christianity
598861
I have spent many hours arguing with armchair historians and right-wing Christians who have claimed (usually without any evidence) that Adolph Hitler was an atheist and even that Germany "forgot God" and that Hitler could never have risen to power in Germany if Germany "hadn't forgotten God".

Such arguments can be quite annoying.  We already know from recorded history that Hitler waged a war against secularism in Germany, outlawing atheist organizations, closing all of the secular schools and mandating daily prayers in the schools that remained open.
Hitler also outlawed abortion in Germany and banned books that taught about evolution.  He spoke out against atheism and spoke out in favor of Christianity and allowed the teaching of Catholic dogma in German public schools.  He changed the German military uniforms to include symbols of Christianity (such as putting "God is with us" on military belt buckles).  He had German soldiers blessed by a priest before going out into combat or on military maneuvers.  He basically turned Germany into a Christian Theocracy.

So, it was both annoying and counterintuitive to have people claim that Hitler was an atheist.

The exact opposite of such annoying encounters is Michael Lackey's book, "The Modernist God State", which not only discusses Hitler's Christianity, but also discusses Hitler's biggest religious influences and how his religious views were shaped.

Most of Hitler's religious views came from a writer named Houston Stewart Chamberlain.  Chamberlain believed that a nation that wasn't Christian was doomed to failure.  Chamberlain also believed that the presence of Jews or atheists or Communists (all pretty much the same thing in Chamberlain's view) would prevent a nation from being a truly Christian nation.

Chamberlain's brand of Christianity was also very nationalistic and pro-German.  If you weren't pro-German, you were a "bad Christian".

Furthermore; in Chamberlain's view; Church and State were inseparable.  The State HAD to be a Christian State!  Reading Chamberlain's views and knowing that Chamberlain was a huge influence on Hitler helps me to understand a lot of Hitler's actions.

Understanding Chamberlain (and the way Chamberlain's works influenced Hitler) explains a lot.  For instance, since Hitler was head of the State (and since Germany was a Christian State) anybody who opposed Hitler was a "bad Christian".

Even if a Christian priest opposed Hitler, they would still be a "bad Christian", as Hitler (as the head of the state) would be the ultimate Christian authority in all of Germany.

Any truly scholarly person who wishes to understand Hitler's mindset and his religious beliefs and motivations, should read this book.  It's really quite informative.
284939
This book is a scholarly analysis of the development of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body for Christianity and Judaism. It analyzes the Old and New Testament, the Talmud, the writings of Gnostics, and the Christian Fathers about the resurrection. Though it is written for believers and non-believers, the authors believe God's justice requires the resurrection of the body and the book is a strong apology for faith. For example:

"Tertullian and Irenaeus firmly believed that if the Gnostic notions of the body and resurrection were true, this meant that Christians had not really been saved. The stakes were that high. To suggest that such men were really more interested in securing thier own comfortable existence or power is to misrepresent or misunderstand them woefully, to present them falsely, and to obscure how seriously and conscientiously such thinkers wrestled with the truth of the claim that Christ had been raised and that all of his followers would be raised on the last day."(page 234)
2764434
this is a great book for me, as both a follower of Jesus Christ and a lover of history, espcially the World War II era.  The book poses some questions that challenged me.  Do I love my God and is my committment to my faith more important to me than my comfortable lifestyle?  Many Germans either did not see that as  mutually exclusive, or answered the question incorrectly.

I recommend  it highly to any one who wants to address that issue in their own hearts.
1889271
This classic work contains the response of popular Christian apologetist C. S. Lewis to three fundamental questions:

1.  Is there a God?
2.  Is God a good and loving God, or is he indifferent to us?
3.  Is Christ what he says he is (Savior of mankind)?

Lewis gives skillful, entertaining and relatively brief responses, but an atheist once pointed out to me that Lewis left a gigantic hole in the third argument - how do we know that the quotations of Christ in the Bible that we read today are accurate?  So, the journey starts here, but it does not end here.  I next turned to The Historical Reliability of the Gospels by Craig L. Blomberg, and The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel.  In the interest of staying on point, I'll discuss those books elsewhere and conclude by highly recommending this book to those new to Christianity or Christian apologetics, but with the caveat that it takes the answer to one crucial question completely for granted.
2573818
Merkt does a very fine job of exploring the potential applicability of the alleged consensus of the undivided Catholic Church of the first five hundred years. His case study is the German theologian Georg Calixt, an ecumenical thinker who lived during the madness of the Thirty Years War. Calixt sought religious toleration, if not reunification, on the basis of what was common to the entire Christian Church before it splintered into East and West, Protestant and Catholic. Calixt's quest proves quixotic and did not stand the test of time, but it is still worth reading about. Those interested in the church fathers or ecumenism will appreciate this work.
4021131
The year was 1938. Hitler was in complete power, leading Nazi Germany on a campaign through Europe, to spread his views. In the Vatican, Pope Pius XI, who was slowly declining into failing health, sought the assistance of an American Jesuit Priest, John LaFarge. LaFarge was a scholar, whose expertise on racial injustices perfectly fit into the Church's views on the situation. His goal was to publicly denounce the Nazism and anti-Semitism that he feared would destroy the teachings of the church. Coming from the Pope, the highest leader of the Catholic Church, this condemnation of Hitler could potentially impact the views of other world leaders, and in turn, World War II itself.

Of course, this process was easier said than done. Pius XI found himself in the midst of an Italian government that seemed to be, whether out of fear or agreement, embracing Hitler's Germany. They even invited the leader to visit their country. Pius XI would have nothing to do with the fanfare of Hitler's arrival. Instead, he retreated to a private Vatican estate, outside of the city, in a quiet protest. Met by resistance from even members of his own church who would rather keep peace with Hitler than provoke him with a damning proclamation, Pius XI stuck to his guns, to denounce what he knew was wrong.

I've always been fascinated by the many pieces to the giant puzzle that is World War II. This time in our history seems to show the best and worst aspects of our world, and I think there are many things to be learned. I was unfamiliar with the story of Pope Pius XI, but with all of the recent  actions taking place in the Vatican, it seemed like a good time to delve deeper into the church's history. I was immediately drawn to Pius's unassuming, humble ways. He really comes off as a kind of quiet force. This book gives interesting insights into the mysterious protocols and inevitable politics of the Vatican. Despite its rather brief length, the book is detailed, suspenseful account of this Pope's history making actions.
1156054
Dr. Martin Erdmann's meticulously-researched book, "Ecumenical Quest for a World Federation", exposes the role of elitist internationalists in exploiting the liberal Christian Ecumenical Movement of the early C20th Century for the purposes of propagandsing the American population with the utopian vision of a technocractic New World Order. This historical investigation, based upon the author's PhD thesis, is essential reading for anyone concerned to understand the current drift towards World Government, illuminating, as it does, a crucial element of that process seldom analysed: the attempt by globalist ideologues to hijack religious institutions for the purposes of furthering an elitist, one-world, collectivist agenda.
2553709
This book is a compendium of chapters by different religious people and theologians. The great thing about this book is that all of the people who contributed to it honor and realize that Jesus is the man in between Judaism and Christianity. And that Christianity is completely dependent upon Judaism for it's existence. I love that the contributors of this book celebrate Jesus being Jewish and that Judaism is essential to Christian. When you read this book you can't help but wonder about the mentality of Christian anti-Semite's who claim to be so religious and spiritual in their beliefs which by it's nature is so ignorant of the fact that Jesus was not just Jewish, but a fully practicing observant Bar Mitzvahed Jew.

Futher, the Last Supper was a Passover meal, which according to Judaism, God commanded the Jews (and therefore the Christians who were/are simply Jews who felt that Jesus was the Messiah, while non Christian Jews feel the Messiah hasn't come yet), that they MUST observe and keep Passover and the Passover meal.

It's always confounded me that the Last Support became distanced from the fact that it was a Passover meal to some degree and that to many, they don't even fully get that Jesus was a Jew. And a very devout one at that! How can any religious observant Christian be anti-Semitic? To be anti-Semitic is to hate Jesus' faith. He was even called Rabbi by many because to be a Rabbi you are a teacher which Jesus most certainly was.

At any rate, they book deals with this and much more. A very interesting read and in that way a wonderful bridge between Judaism and Christianity.
3918101
I haven't read the book: however Pope Pius supported Hitler as soon as Hitler came to power. The Catholic Church in Germany was against Hitler's racial policies i.e. kill all Jews. Since German taxes included a tithe for all religions, the Vatican was anxious to continue this source of income. Pope Pius, then a Church diplomat, was sent to Germany to organize an agreement with Hitler. The result was that the Vatican, and the German Catholic Church, supported the Nazi government in return for continuing the revenue from the German Government.

After WW 2 ended. the Vatican, headed by Pope Pius, helped hide Nazi war criminals, and to help them escape to places like Argentina and other South America countries.

To say that Pope Pius had a crusade against Hitler and the Nazis is a gross pathetic lie.
2230761
My grandmother was German Jewish on her father's side and the child of a secular couple with an interfaith marriage.  I am constantly looking for details of people with lives similar to hers which is why I read this book.  Even though this book is written from a very Christian perspective, I believe it illustrates well how sorted things got at that time.  It is too bad the main character lost almost all her Jewish identity, but that is what happened to my own family as well.  As descendents of Jews we can be grateful for the Righteous Gentiles who may have tried to save us.
However, I feel this book pushes the issue of conversion to Christianity a little more than I am comfortable with.
2118260
If you have ever wondered what really happened during the almost three hundred years between the time Jesus died on the cross and 312 CE when Emperor Constantine became a Christian leading to Christianity's becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire, then this is the book for you.  Be forewarned, however, that in seeking knowledge you may find more than you bargained for.

Simplistically speaking, it would be nice to believe that following Jesus' execution, his twelve disciples scattered to the four corners of the Earth, spreading a uniform gospel (the one we know today), meticulously documenting their master's teachings and their own actions.  It would also be nice to believe that we have original copies of the writings of these apostles, that there are few, if any, discrepancies between their various accounts and, further, that the New Testament is a faithful representation of all these happenings.  But, sadly, as this book explains in great detail, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Instead, we find that there were many diverse opinions as to who Jesus was, what he believed and what he stood for.  There was even disagreement as to whether he was even a man.  Perhaps, as some believed, he was an illusion.  Did he, as some thought, believe that he was the Son of God and that the end of the world was near at hand?  Some, the Ebionites, accepted Jesus as the Messiah but believed that there was only one God and that in order to be right with God you had to be Jewish, be circumcised, eat kosher food, rest on the Sabbath, and keep Jewish law.  Others, like the Marcionites believed that there were two gods, the God of the old testament and Jesus Christ, the God of the new testament, and that it was wrong to keep the laws of the old testament because it's God was a lesser wrathful God.  Then there were the Gnostics, who accepted Jesus as the Christ, but believed that only the enlightened (themselves) would be saved and that the rest of the flock simply didn't understand and were lost.  There were many variations of these beliefs and other beliefs quite bizarre.  But this shouldn't be too surprising for these great and minor thinkers, some forgers and charlatans, were trying to work out the mysteries of the universe on a new theological basis.

The debates and arguments continued for almost three hundred years until those whom the author terms the "proto-orthodox" faction finally managed to purge the writings of, and essentially eliminate, all the other factions eventually leading, by a very tenuous path, to Christianity's accepted, "orthodox," New Testament and the Christian church as we know it today.

Needless to say, this book may be a test of one's faith and, as such, may not be for everyone.  The good news, to me at least, is that the controversy among men following Jesus Christ's life and death confirm, almost beyond any doubt, that the historical Jesus did live, that something glorious did happen as a result of his life and death, and that He was more than simply a brilliant, well intentioned, but still mere human.  The founding fathers may have gotten it wrong, but, as the author observes, the world would be a far different place if the Christian orthodoxy had turned out any other way.
3042632
This is a great compromise in size between Luther's Small Catechism and the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a wonderful opportunity to draw a line in the sand between an increasingly pagan western society, innovative and progressive theology on the one hand and orthodox Anglican theology on the other. It was developed by and for the Anglican Church North America. It will be useful in a number of respects. It will introduce those in contemporary post Christian cultures to historical Anglican Christian theology and it will reintroduce contemporary Anglicans to their own beliefs historically held. Thus it will help form the identity of those within the ACNA and serve as a  centripetal mechanism of unity. Those who worked on the task force like J.I. Packer and Stephen Noll are well grounded in Scripture and highly regarded scholars. As a retired psychologist, I believe it is also a great personal improvement book. Reading it is a faith and hope building experience. Fr. Dale
1137571
This book traces the history of Christianity to secularism in Europe. There is an eerie parallel between the demise of Christianity in Europe and what is currently happening here in the United States.  One point made is that the constitution of the European Union has no reference to God or the history that brought Europe to a "humanitarian" society.  Very interesting and eye-opening situation.
3850890
As a European I feel great admiration for Celso Cukiercorn and his recent book. It reveals the truth and historical facts about the often forgotten Jewish roots of Christianity.

In discussions among Christians there is insufficient awarness and knowledge, but also acknowledgement of the fact that Judaism is the mother of the big two religions: Christianity and Islam.

Without Judaism we would not have a 7th day off every week, we would not honor our Mother and Father, we would not pray instead of sacrificing human beings to God as in the pagean era.

In essence Judaism, is the mother of our Western (European and American) civilisation. This book reminds us of these core Western values and reminds us of the Jewish roots of Christianity.

In essence Christianity was a small subdepartment or Jewish congregation untill it was captured by the late Roman Emperors (in AD 300) for their own political purposes and went astray from it roots. In essence it became an orphan.

To be a good Christian means to me be able to follow the footsteps of Jesus. This means to apply his ethics, to apply his rules, to celebrate his holidays and to apply his lifestyle and his thoughts. These were all Jewish steps.

Realising this, will evaporate all reasons for anti semitism and bring Christians closer to their real roots, those of Judaism. This book is a step into this direction.

Marinus de Hooge, Holland, Europe
1086142
This is an important book; that it is well written is a bonus (and it has the taught flow of a cant-put-it-down thriller). White has penned a tour de force detailing the evolution of the paganization of America and the West, especially since FDRs New Deal (a Raw Deal, as it has turned out). The author is particularly penetrating in exposing the perverse anti-constitutionalism of the totalitarian liberal Left. His legal research is meticulous and his counter-culture analysis is superb. Whites review of the religious downgrade in the U.S. is seamlessly woven from Pilgrim days to these days of post-Christian and anti-Christian enmity. In it all, the Lord Jesus Christ, Head of the Church, asserts his own opposition to the tyrannical state. Herein lies the antithesis of his political theory in the gospel of free grace. (See my full review at Kerux.com)
James T. Dennison, Jr., Academic Dean and Professor of Church History
Northwest Theological Seminary, Lynnwood, WA
2647807
I won't repeat what other reviewers have said so well, but I will offer a couple of new observations.

First, while the analysis of the Christian Right and its relationship to George W. Bush is certainly correct, the author is obviously antagonistic to the Christian faith and its belief in the End Times scenario. He refers to Old Testament and End Times Scriptures as myths, and seems to take a snide approach to people of faith.  The quotes from the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are accurate, but I would think a great many Christians fine them to be an embarrassment anyway.

So, if you are a Christian who believes in the historical accuracy of the Bible and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, you will find that part of Craig's narrative offensive.

Second, however, the alliance of Bush with the Christian Right is another example of how wrong things go when Christians try to wed the Kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world, and meddle in politics. There are those Dominion theologians who want to establish a Christian government and return the United States to being the Christian nation it never was in the first place. The Moral Majority of Falwell sought a moral transformation of America, but through politics. And the Christian Coalition was an even more powerful force in trying to blend two kingdoms that should not be blended that way.

Finally, I encounter a great many right-wingers who still think George W. Bush was a wonderful president while his predecessor and successor were awful. In fact, all three were awful, and this book helps dispel the myth of Bush 43's wonderfulness.

Very thoroughly researched and documented, fabulously written, and - as far as I can tell - accurate as well. If you care about why the United States has been brought to its knees and toward Third World status, this book gives you a great account of George W. Bush's contribution to that downslide.
781007
This is such a great find! The three texts have such a great tone. It's only a shame that so few people actually speak Middle High German. I'll mention my favourite text, Der Winsbecke. I don't know who wrote it. Clearly some anonymous writer, perhaps a knight or a monk from some monastery. It begins by explaining in the first stanza about how a father has a son who he loves and wants him to be good. The next stanza then explains, and in very fatherly form, with lots of 'My Son', or Son and so forth, how he can trust the advice of his father. The gist of it is on how one ought to behave, and what manner of people exist in the world. At one point he mentions how the world turns to sorcery, but that he should love God, so that he will never fail. To be careful of heretics or bad priests. There's a whole lot more in Der Winsbecke. And one can clearly see why many of the older monastic non-militant orders did not expand so much in Germany in the 13th century. Especially considering the constant back-and-forths between the Emperor and the Pope. This book is a great treat into the mind of a bygone era.

Unfortunately, it's in Middle High German. So before you can tackle this, you'll need to learn that language. Saelic ist der man, wer kan disem lesen.