This course, Church History II, has been very insightful and informational. The history of the church is full of intricate nuances. The Age of Ideologies represents a period in church history that ran from 1914 through today. Through the struggle as world powers fight for political, military, and economic supremacy, Christians throughout the world have been forced to reconsider what was important and necessary for the church to grow and endure change, while staying true to the mission and message of the church. From reading the textbook, “Church History in Plain Language” by Bruce L. Shelley, in this paper I will discuss a few aspects of The Age of Ideologies as it relates to church history. Adolf Hitler was the leader of the German government and leader of the Nazis. The Nazis, under Hitler’s rule, believed unifying all German people to create a super-community. From the text, I gleaned that the Nazi’s developed the anti-Semitic doctrine, a dogma that …show more content…
This came for America at the end of World War II, and as a result evangelical Christianity returned to prominence. At this time, a young preacher from North Carolina named Billy Graham started his ascent to notoriety in the renewed evangelical movement. Billy Graham, serving as an evangelist, led massive crusades to bring lost souls to the church. More than an introducing people to an ideology or a denomination, Graham was most interested in evangelizing and leading people to Jesus Christ, God’s sacrificial lamb for mankind. Through his work in this area, he was able to assist in uniting the two largest evangelical organizations, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the American Council of Christian Churches. The Continuation Committee for World Evangelism was created. Their goal was, “to encourage and assist where necessary in the formation of regional and national committees to advance world evangelism in every area (Shelley
The book Mein Kampf written by Hitler, explicitly states Hitler 's hate for the Jews. This hate is what led him to believe that it was his responsibility to create a pure country out of Germany, by excluding the other types of races and focusing on the Aryan race, which is what he believed to be the superior.This idea would later result in in the Holocaust. Although Hitler was an intelligent individual the scientific and cultural basis he uses to prove his beliefs are completely foolish, and the facts that he uses to differentiate the Jews and aryan races do not add up. Hitler 's views eventually laid the foundations of anti -semitism.
Adolf Hitler wanted the Jewish race to be destroyed forever. But he didn’t just stop at beliefs. Even if you were a Christian, Catholic, Atheist, etc., you were still in danger. You were still in danger because if you looked Jewish to him then you were swooped up and taken hostage in a concentration camp.
Religion and opinions are both products of humans. Our intelligence gifts us with the freedom of thought and capability to apply it to our views on deep life questions. Intelligence provides us the right to believe in any sort of God, afterlife, or way of living. Brad Gregory describes the Protestant Reformation’s effects on the present society’s Christian qualities in a book he wrote titled “The Unintended Reformation.”1 (After my awareness of the outcome of the western history of the Protestant Reformation, I gained an opinion on today’s religious views that do not completely agree with Gregory’s valuation.) The Protestant Reformation was vital to the progress in the knowledge about the Christian faith.
In the Summer of 1941, Adolf Hitler started exterminating Jews and other non-Aryans, as a part of his plan to create a perfect Germany and to carry out his ‘Final Solution’ to the ‘Jewish Question’. Before exterminating 6,000,000 Jewish people, Adolf Hitler had already performed several actions which singled out the Jew as an evil person and one who should be killed. In 1923, Hitler was caught while trying to overturn the Bavarian government and was imprisoned for 5 years. In prison, he wrote the famed autobiography, Mein Kampf, in which he stated his first publicly known anti-Semitic beliefs and his ‘Final Solution’ to the ‘Jewish Question’. While imprisoned, there was a worldwide depression as economic markets crashed worldwide. This would help Hitler because once out of prison he would use this to help gain power both for the Nazi’s and for himself politically by promising better things to come in the future. In 1933, while preaching in front of a large Nazi crowd, Hitler used the Jews as scapegoats for Germany’s loss in World War One. “If at the beginning of the War and during the War twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas, as happened to hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers in the field, the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain.'; Many people were upset at the loss, and blaming the Jews made many people anti-Semites. Once he was named chancellor in 1933, Hitler preached about creating a Germany for true German people and a more centralized Germany. This included eliminating those who were non-Aryans and/or non-German. He would later detail about what a true German was in the Nuremberg Laws. He stated that Jews were not really Germans but instead, they were non-Aryan, and they were malignant tumors.
Hitler had a hatred for Jewish people, the roots of his anti Semitism are unclear. When Hitler came to power he almost immediately began to strip Jewish people of any kind of rights.
Hitler's main idea was to, as he called it, 'cleanse' Europe of these non-deserving people. Hitler despite having gained anti-Semitic views on his own from things. he saw he was influenced a lot by Neil Darwin. He based a lot of his racial arguments and views on this. However, another point to consider was that the Jews were being used as scapegoats for German problems.
Beginning in 1933, Hitler and his Nazi party targeted not only those of the Jewish religion but many other sets. Hitler was motivated by religion and nationalism to eradicate any threats to his state. It was Hitler’s ideology that his Aryan race was superior to any other. Hitler’s goal was to create a “master race” by eliminating the chance for “inferiors” to reproduce. Besides the Jews the other victims of the genocide include the Roma (Gypsies), African-Germans, the mentally disabled, handicapped, Poles, Slavs, Anti-Nazi political parties, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Homosexuals. In Hitler’s eyes all of these groups needed to be eliminated in order for his master race to be a success.
Similarly, in the 16thcentury the ‘Reformation in Europe’ led to more divisions. Hence, today there are five main Christian Variants, which include Anglican, closely linked to the Church of England, emphasises on scripture, reason and tradition in relation to beliefs and practices. The Catholic Church which follows several important Doctrines, including the Doctrine of Apostolic Succession, Doctrine of Immaculate Conception, and t...
“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach,” Adolf Hitler (The National World War Museum). The German Nazi dictator utilized his power over the people using propaganda, eventually creating a sense of hatred towards Jews. After World War 1, the punishments of the League of Nations caused Germany to suffer. The Nazi party came to blame the Jews in order to have a nation-wide “scapegoat”. This hatred and prejudice towards Jews is known as anti-semitism. According to the Breman Museum, “the Nazi Party was one of the first political movements to take full advantage of mass communications technologies: radio, recorded sound, film, and the printed word” (The Breman Museum). By publishing books, releasing movies and holding campaigns against Jews, antisemitism came to grow quickly, spreading all across Germany. The Nazi Party often referred to the notion of a “People’s Community” where all of Germany was “racially pure” (Issuu). They would show images of ‘pure’, blond workers, labouring to build a new society. This appealed greatly to people who were demoralized during Germany’s defeat in World War 1 and the economic depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hitler, along with Joseph Goebbels, used developed propaganda methods in order to suppress the Jews and spread anti semitism.
During the 11th and 12th centuries the Roman Catholic Church began facing changes, some of these changes were good for the church, while others came at great criticism. One of the greatest conflicts was Church vs. State. The absolute goal of the reforms was to find ways to consolidate their power by making the church more independent of secular control. With the groundwork laid by Pope Leo IV, along comes Pope Gregory VII who introduces what is referred to as the “Gregorian reform movement” (p 267).
In 1934, the death of President Hindenburg of Germany removed the last remaining obstacle for Adolf Hitler to assume power. Soon thereafter, he declared himself President and Fuehrer, which means “supreme leader”. That was just the beginning of what would almost 12 years of Jewish persecution in Germany, mainly because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews. It is difficult to doubt that Hitler genuinely feared and hated Jews. His whole existence was driven by an obsessive loathing of them (Hart-Davis 14).
Church History in Plain Language is written by Bruce L. Shelley. This work focuses on the history of Christianity from 6 B.C. to the current period. It covers some of Christianity’s greatest events, theologians, and the various subsection of Christianity. Other than the events leading up to the death of Jesus, I had very little knowledge of Christianity’s history. After reading through the book, I have gained understanding on the Christian Councils, scholasticism, Christendom, and modern trends of Christianity.
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
Despite anti-Semitic views being represented throughout Germany’s history, they were nowhere as severe as the views that were prevalent during the Nazi rein. Being traced back to as early as third century B.C., anti-Semitism has almost always played a role in society. In Germany before the rise of Hitler Jews were often tormented and disliked by members of society, but could still hold jobs and be members of society. This attitude towards Jews changed drastically when Nazis came into power. In 1920, Hitler announced to the Nazi Party the Five Points of National Socialism. It was one of these points that stated that no one except those of German blood could be a member of the nation. Therefore no Jew could be a member of the nation. This was the beginning of Hitler’s shift in the ideals of anti-Semitism because not only were Jewish people treated differently then other members of society, but were no longer members of society at all. To further excommunicate Jews from society, Nazis prevented Germans from shopping in stores owned or run by Jews. By 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with the yellow Star of David or had the word "Juden" written on the window. This was no...
Lutzer, Erwin. The Doctrines That Divide: a Fresh Look at the Historic Doctrines That Separate Christians. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1998.