God, Britain and Hitler in World War II

Many Britons had distinct religious or theological interpretations of World War II. They viewed fascism, especially the German national socialism, as a form of modern paganism, a repulsive worship of leader, race and state - a form of idolatry. However, for the most part, British clerics did not defend the war as a simple matter of Christian Britain versus pagan Germany, because they saw only too well the pagan elements in British culture. Instead, the clergy defended the war as a defence of "Christian civilization", a particular religious culture that had grown up under the aegis of the Christian faith. Fascism had, in the opinion of many, family similarities to liberal humanism. Nazism was abusing the Scripture because everyone had allowed a liberal hermeneutic to slip into their thinking theologically. Naturally, the clerics view of the war as "just" meant that pacifism was wrong-headed, but they refused to demonize pacifists or to hound them into arrest. The clergymen did maintain that liberal humanism issued logically in pacifism and pacifism had weakened the national will, allowing it to make shameful concessions to the fascist dictators throughout the 1930s. This study will also help explain the surprising Labour party victory in the summer of 1945.

ISBN 0275965392   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780275965396 (What's this?)   Pages 172 Publisher ABC-CLIO   Volumes 1 Imprint Greenwood Press   Weight (grammes) 458 Format Hardback   Published in Westport Publication date 30 Aug 1999   Height (mm) 235 Writer of foreword Richard V. Pierard   Width (mm) 155 Library of Congress D639   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY 940.53   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

		Foreword by Richard V. Pierard
		Preface
1		Introduction: The Legacy of the Great War		1
2		1939: War Again?		7
3		Dealing with Pacifism		23
4		The Enemy: Fascism-Nazism		51
5		The Decline and Fall of Liberal Humanism		79
6		The War for Christian Civilization		97
7		1945: A New Order?		121
8		Reflections		135
		Selected Bibliography		139
		Index		145

?Based on the scores of books and pamphlets published by Church leaders between 1939 and 1945, God, Britian, and Hitler, is a good introduction to the important cluster of complex and enduring theological, political, denominational, and moral issues raised by the Second World War. In its breadth of coverage and clarity of presentation, Hoover's work will repay the careful attention of students or war aims, church/state relations, and the role of the church in late twentieth-century Britian.?-Albion

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