New Additions to CADRE site

I have recently added two new resources to the CADRE site. The first is a link to a new group known as the C.S. Lewis Society which has been linked under the Prominent Christian Spokespersons portion of the CADRE Public Square Page. The group describes itself as such:

The Society is an educational and cultural organization of people interested in events, publications, and other developments that advance deeper understanding of the life, works, and ideas of C. S. Lewis and others who are addressing the enduring philosophical, cultural, historical, literary, theological, social, and economic issues of mankind.

It has an excellent page of linked articles about the man and many of his thoughts.

The second link recently added is a page that has been added to our Hitler Christian? page. It is a detailed response to Jim Walker's "Hitler's Christianity" website which is one of the sites on the Internet that attempts (contrary to all reason) to connect Hitler with Christianity.

I encourage everyone to take the time to visit these sites if these are topics of interest to you.

Comments

Steven Carr said…
I liked the proof that Hitler was not a Christian that showed a photograph of a SS belf-buckle with 'Gott Mitt Uns' written on it.

To the author, that was proof that Hitler did not believe in God.
Steven Carr said…
I like the way the author knows that the anti-Christian statements in Table Talk are genuine (even though missing from the original German of the stenographer's version (Picker's version)

'Secondly, there was a real possibility that Hitler would ask to see the result. He would not have been pleased to find that his statements had been so completely falsified as to present the opposite of what he intended. This would not have been beneficial to Bormann's career.'

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Hitler die at the end of WW2? How then could he have seen the results?
BK said…
Straining at gnats and swallowing camels again, eh? Consider,

"When considering the relationship between the Nazis and the Christian Churches, it could be assumed that it would be one of barely concealed hostility. Many of the fundamental beliefs of the Nazis should have proved abhorrent to the Christian Churches of Germany. Nazism was a movement based on strength, military might, racial hatred and intolerance towards any forms of weakness. This contrasted starkly with Christianity's espousal of forgiveness, love, charity and humility. Hitler himself condemned the Christian faith by scathingly remarking that, 'taken to its logical conclusion, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of human failure'. So it would seem natural that the Christian Churches would stand up against the Nazi regime and resist it as resolutely as possible. In reality, however, the relationship between the Nazis and the Churches was much more ambiguous.

"Of course, there were Christians who resisted the Nazis and who often paid for their bravery with their lives. In 1941 Archbishop Galen, the Catholic Archbishop of Munster, spoke out against the Nazi policy of Euthanasia. The ensuing storm of criticism from Catholics led to Hitler halting the killings of handicapped Germans, although approximately 70,000 had already perished. Martin Niemoller, who opposed the takeover of the Protestant Churches by the Nazis, spent many years in various concentration camps from 1937 until the end of the war. A Protestant pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, emerged as one of the leading resistors to the Nazi regime. He forged contacts with the British during the war and also communicated with other resistance groups, such as the Kreisau Circle, in an attempt to facilitate the overthrow of Hitler. He was arrested in 1943 and executed in April 1945. Numerous other priests and ministers spoke out against the Nazis, and 400 Catholic priests were incarcerated in Dachau concentration camp alone by 1945."

~ Cross and Swastika: the Nazi Party and the German Churches: to what extent did Christians support Hitler, and for what reasons?(Talking Points). Will Saunders.
History Review 46 (Sept 2003): p9(6).

To try to argue Hitler was a Christian is much like arguing that Nixon wasn't a crook because he said he wasn't. The evidence of what he did speaks more volumes than anything he said.
BK said…
Oh, and let me add, you act as if the fact that there is some concern about the Table Talk documents is somehow not mentioned in the article rebutting Walker. Here's what is said on this page (http://www.bedfordgaol.com/walkersite8.html)

"Reputable historians as far as I know accept the book, and even Mr. Walker accepts some of it as genuine. He asserts, though, that the anti-Christian statements do not reflect Hitler's beliefs, but reflect instead the bias of Bormann, who edited them. To me, this topic is of secondary importance. I have not needed to use Table Talk so far (though I believe it is genuine), and think that Hitler's public statements and actions, taken together, reveal what sort of a man Hitler was. I agree with Mr. Walker's statement: "The best way to evaluate a person involves examining the words and actions of the person directly rather than indirectly from editors and hearsay accounts." Nevertheless, I would like to comment on Mr. Walker's attempts to discredit a potentially useful source of insight into Hitler's mind."

Does that sound like, as Mr. Carr puts it, "the author knows that the anti-Christian statements in Table Talk are genuine"? Quite to the contrary, it sounds like he acknowledges that there is some dispute but is going to make arguments that they are genuine.

Having said that, I do tend to agree with your criticism of point two. The author may have intended to argue that Bormann would have had to be editing them as he went along, but I don't know if that's what he's saying. Still, he does make more useful observations in points 1, 3 and 4.

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