"The Theological/Church Historical Meaning of the German Church Struggle, 1933-1945," a lecture given at the 1970 Lutheran Brotherhood Lectures, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary (1970-09-15)

              SOI THEOLQGIGAX/CIfJRCH HISTORICAL MBftHINO OF THE
GERMAN CHURCH STRUGGLE, 1933-1915*
The general problematic which I have to introduce, the Church
Struggle with totalitarian ideologies and their systei®, is a serious
one from evdry point of view.    It has been such for some sixty years
at least, and it is of intense concern in certain areas of th© USA and
to some other countries today.
When I wrote the book called The German Phoenix, published ten
years ago - a discussion of Nazi persecution of the churches, of the
struggle of the various centers of church responsibility in the Third
Reich - the reviews were generally friendly.    They spoke about the German tendency to authoritarianism and the German tendency to exaggerate
law and order at the expense of liberty$ and of course they thought it
was useful to write about a uniquely German disaster.   When in Jferch of
this year we held an International Conference on the History of the
Church Struggle and the Holocaus© at Wayne State University, a conference
which attracted some 160 scholars and churchmen from various Canadian,
US, and German universities, the sub-theme was, flahftt can America learn?"
That is, it is becoming apparent to an increasing number of theologians,
church historians, political scientists, and also pastors, that the disease, the pathological condition, which has led to these frightful challenges to Christian faith as well as to civic liberty is not a uniquely
German problem.    It is part of the problematic of, at least, the Morth
Atlantic community.    (When one puts it that way he remembers at once
^Lecture I of the 1970 latheran Brotherhood Lectures, Waterloo Lutheran
Seminary, 9/15/70j by Prof. Franklin H. Littell of Temple University.