Sailing ships and boats, and the sailors who navigate them, depend mightily upon the wind; withou... more Sailing ships and boats, and the sailors who navigate them, depend mightily upon the wind; without it they remain in the doldrums, floating aimlessly. Without wind, all the sailors' experience and ingenuity is of absolutely no help. But if the wind should get up and blow against them - directly head-on or broadside - it can destroy and sink even the biggest boats and surest sailors. So navigators must learn to read the wind carefully and with respect, and to interpret and respond to it appropriately. Fighting against the might of the wind is ultimately a lost cause.
It is impossible for anyone to feel the pain you feel; the most people can do is to sympathise or... more It is impossible for anyone to feel the pain you feel; the most people can do is to sympathise or empathise (as a man I can sympathise with a woman with scream-inducing labour pains, but I can only truly empathise with someone whose experience I have myself experienced). But because there is nothing new under the sun, all of us can at least try to 'suffer with' the sufferings of others. Our experience of the all too human failings of the church today is by no means unique: ever since the beginning, times of trauma and crisis have alternated with times of peace and healing. Our challenge is to keep hope alive during times of crisis, and to learn from the past in order learn its lessons and not repeat its mistakes. In this final reflection, I offer some reasons for hope and some perspectives for the next stage of our lives if it is to be marked by faithfulness and action rather than fear and reaction.
crannies of Christian resistance and accommodation to Nazism, but also they warn people today tha... more crannies of Christian resistance and accommodation to Nazism, but also they warn people today that they too are susceptible to the allurements of statesmen promoting national prestige and greatness. Thus, I greeted Lowell Green’s contribution to the discussion with anticipation. A veteran scholar of the Reformation, he had studied in Germany in the 1950s when many the figures in the church struggle were alive and even professionally active, thus giving him first-hand access to some of the principals. Moreover, he focused on the Lutheran confessionalists (also called “confessionals”), the conservative wing of the German Protestant (evangelisch) church that adhered strictly to the doctrinal tenets of the sixteenth-century Lutheran confessions. Since the role of this group has not been adequately studied, this book could have filled a gap in our knowledge of the church struggle. Unfortunately, it falls far short of the mark. The central argument is flawed. For Green, the heroes of the conflict are not Niemoeller, Bonhoeffer, Barth, and others who with their political theology fought the nazification of the church, but rather the confessionalists who rejected “unionism” (the unpardonable sin of compromising Lutheran with Reformed [Calvinist] doctrine and practices). Armed with such Lutheran beliefs as the distinction between law and gospel, the orders of creation, and the two kingdoms, the confessionalists opposed Nazi policies, but their efforts were undermined by unionist efforts like the celebrated Barmen Declaration of 1934. Green concentrates approvingly on the activities of Lutheran bishops who kept their regional churches intact (not merged into one national or Reic-h church) and on confessional theologians Werner Elert, Paul Althaus, and Hermann Sasse. Historians have criticized the confessionals for undermining Protestant resistance to the nazified “German Christians,” their acceptance of Hitler’s goals, and especially their weakkneed stance on the Jewish issue, but Green will have none of this. Through the copious use of published documents, archival materials from Erlangen University, and secondary sources that bolster his arguments, he gives the appearance of objectivity but turns a blind eye to scholarship that contradicts his thesis. His ignorance of important works on Nazism and the church is breath-taking (for example, only four of the thirty-plus titles listed in my entry on the church struggle in the Encyclopedia of Christianity (19991 are cited in his bibliography), while his hard-driving polemics and exculpatory treatment of people whose records of resistance to Nazism are less than impressive render the book unacceptable to serious scholars of the topic.
Sailing ships and boats, and the sailors who navigate them, depend mightily upon the wind; withou... more Sailing ships and boats, and the sailors who navigate them, depend mightily upon the wind; without it they remain in the doldrums, floating aimlessly. Without wind, all the sailors' experience and ingenuity is of absolutely no help. But if the wind should get up and blow against them - directly head-on or broadside - it can destroy and sink even the biggest boats and surest sailors. So navigators must learn to read the wind carefully and with respect, and to interpret and respond to it appropriately. Fighting against the might of the wind is ultimately a lost cause.
It is impossible for anyone to feel the pain you feel; the most people can do is to sympathise or... more It is impossible for anyone to feel the pain you feel; the most people can do is to sympathise or empathise (as a man I can sympathise with a woman with scream-inducing labour pains, but I can only truly empathise with someone whose experience I have myself experienced). But because there is nothing new under the sun, all of us can at least try to 'suffer with' the sufferings of others. Our experience of the all too human failings of the church today is by no means unique: ever since the beginning, times of trauma and crisis have alternated with times of peace and healing. Our challenge is to keep hope alive during times of crisis, and to learn from the past in order learn its lessons and not repeat its mistakes. In this final reflection, I offer some reasons for hope and some perspectives for the next stage of our lives if it is to be marked by faithfulness and action rather than fear and reaction.
crannies of Christian resistance and accommodation to Nazism, but also they warn people today tha... more crannies of Christian resistance and accommodation to Nazism, but also they warn people today that they too are susceptible to the allurements of statesmen promoting national prestige and greatness. Thus, I greeted Lowell Green’s contribution to the discussion with anticipation. A veteran scholar of the Reformation, he had studied in Germany in the 1950s when many the figures in the church struggle were alive and even professionally active, thus giving him first-hand access to some of the principals. Moreover, he focused on the Lutheran confessionalists (also called “confessionals”), the conservative wing of the German Protestant (evangelisch) church that adhered strictly to the doctrinal tenets of the sixteenth-century Lutheran confessions. Since the role of this group has not been adequately studied, this book could have filled a gap in our knowledge of the church struggle. Unfortunately, it falls far short of the mark. The central argument is flawed. For Green, the heroes of the conflict are not Niemoeller, Bonhoeffer, Barth, and others who with their political theology fought the nazification of the church, but rather the confessionalists who rejected “unionism” (the unpardonable sin of compromising Lutheran with Reformed [Calvinist] doctrine and practices). Armed with such Lutheran beliefs as the distinction between law and gospel, the orders of creation, and the two kingdoms, the confessionalists opposed Nazi policies, but their efforts were undermined by unionist efforts like the celebrated Barmen Declaration of 1934. Green concentrates approvingly on the activities of Lutheran bishops who kept their regional churches intact (not merged into one national or Reic-h church) and on confessional theologians Werner Elert, Paul Althaus, and Hermann Sasse. Historians have criticized the confessionals for undermining Protestant resistance to the nazified “German Christians,” their acceptance of Hitler’s goals, and especially their weakkneed stance on the Jewish issue, but Green will have none of this. Through the copious use of published documents, archival materials from Erlangen University, and secondary sources that bolster his arguments, he gives the appearance of objectivity but turns a blind eye to scholarship that contradicts his thesis. His ignorance of important works on Nazism and the church is breath-taking (for example, only four of the thirty-plus titles listed in my entry on the church struggle in the Encyclopedia of Christianity (19991 are cited in his bibliography), while his hard-driving polemics and exculpatory treatment of people whose records of resistance to Nazism are less than impressive render the book unacceptable to serious scholars of the topic.
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Papers by Anthony Gittins