Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustration
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Note on Translation and Citations
- Introduction
- 1 Positive Christianity
- 2 Above the Confessions
- 3 Blood and Soil
- 4 National Renewal
- 5 Completing the Reformation
- 6 Public Need before Private Greed
- 7 Gottgläubig
- 8 The Holy Reich
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Index
3 - Blood and Soil
The Paganist Ambivalence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustration
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Note on Translation and Citations
- Introduction
- 1 Positive Christianity
- 2 Above the Confessions
- 3 Blood and Soil
- 4 National Renewal
- 5 Completing the Reformation
- 6 Public Need before Private Greed
- 7 Gottgläubig
- 8 The Holy Reich
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Index
Summary
The men of the coming age will transform the heroes' memorials and glades of remembrance into the places of pilgrimage of a new religion; there the hearts of Germans will be constantly shaped afresh in pursuit of a new myth.
Alfred RosenbergJesus is a linchpin of our history … the God of the Europeans.
Alfred RosenbergSo far we have surveyed those in the Nazi movement who described themselves as Christian or their movement as based on a Christian social philosophy. Rarely did they elaborate on doctrinal questions. Seldom did these party members disclose their thinking on original sin, the resurrection of Christ, or the communion of the saints. Even though Hitler indicated his belief in an afterlife, he, like all Nazis who expressed an opinion, rejected the Old Testament and believed Jesus was an Aryan. If a strict theologian would have found this far from orthodox, theologically liberal Protestants would have recognized these positions as residing, if not originating, within their own religious system. Their frequent references to biblical passages and reliance on them in constructing their image of Jesus and his social message indicate that a large number of Nazis believed that they were following, if not Christian metaphysics, at least Christian ethics. Because most positive Christians of the movement believed their kingdom was of this world, their attraction to Christianity rested primarily with its temporal message, its political and social meanings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Holy ReichNazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945, pp. 86 - 113Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003