British Christians and the Third Reich
Church, State, and the Judgement of Nations

A new approach to the moral and intellectual debates provoked by Nazism in Germany, the Holocaust and World War II.

Andrew Chandler (Author)

9781107129047, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 May 2022

288 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3 cm, 0.79 kg

In this ground-breaking study, Andrew Chandler examines the complex relationship between religions and politics, church and state, and national and international politics during the period that witnessed the rise and fall of the Third Reich. He explores these dilemmas within the context of the tumultuous years when many British Christian confronted and challenged the Nazi regime. Chandler shows how many of the key moral questions which came to define the modern world now crystallized: What view should the Christian take of the political state? How should the claims of dictators and democrats be judged? How should the Church protest against injustice – and what can be done about it? How should peace be preserved and when should war be declared? How should a just war be justly fought? It is a history which places the Third Reich firmly in an international perspective, revealing the moral arguments and debates that Nazism provoked across the democracies. It is also an important study of the many ways in which men and women outside Germany intervened, protested, and campaigned against the Hitler regime and sought to support its critics and its victims.

Part I. An Inhabited Landscape: 1. Observing British Christianity after the Great War
2. The public and private world of British Christianity
Part II. The German National Revolution, 1933-1934: 3. Tumult in 1933
4. Escalation and controversy: 1933-1934
5. The deepening crisis: 1933-1934
Part III. Resisting a Rapprochement, 1935-1937: 6. Uneasy calm: 1935
7. A dubious stability: 1936
8. A world of conference and a single arrest: 1937
Part IV. Crisis, 1938-1939: 9. The destruction of peace: 1938
10. The coming of war: 1938-1939
Part V. The Onslaught, 1939-1943: 11. A righteous war: 1939-1941
12. New alliances: 1941-1943
Part VI. A Gathering Judgement, 1944-1949: 13. Unconditional realities
14. Peace aims and retribution
15. Justice in 1945 and after
Part VII. Endings and Legacies.

Subject Areas: Fascism & Nazism [JPFQ], Christianity [HRC], History of religion [HRAX], Religion & politics [HRAM2], Second World War [HBWQ], First World War [HBWN], British & Irish history [HBJD1]