The German liberal theologians who paved the way for Hitler
The debate over whether Hitler was a Christian is a distraction: German rationalist theologians, from Schleiermacher to Von Harnack, undermined the moral foundations of…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Hitler and liberal theology: the rationalist seed of antisemitism
Hitler's confessions in *Mein Kampf* —"I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of the Creator by defending myself against the Jews"— have fueled an eternal debate: was the führer a Christian? But a closer look suggests that the key influence was not his personal faith, but the breeding ground created by German liberal and rationalist theologians of the nineteenth century.
From Schleiermacher to Von Harnack: faith reduced to feeling
Friedrich Schleiermacher, father of German romanticism, defined religion as a "feeling of absolute dependence." With him, German Protestant theology turned toward subjectivism: biblical truth ceased to be objective and came to depend on individual conscience. This shift, according to some analysts, peine the door to justifying any atrocity by appealing to "personal conscience." Adolf von Harnack, along the same lines, proposed casting off the Old Testament and building a "scientific" theology, free of inconvenient traditions. Although both were academics, not occultists, their rationalist approach coincided with a theological antisemitism that went back a long way: from the patristic *Adversus Judaeos* to Luther.
Fifteen hundred years of antisemitism in academic wrapping
The idea of "the struggle against the Jew as a sacred mission" was not invented by the rationalists. It had already been commonplace in Christendom since the second century. But the German liberal theologians gave it a veneer of modernity: reason as "God's candle" (John Locke), faith as inner experience, and tradition as an obstacle. By purging Christianity of its "irrational" elements (miracles, prophecies, the Old Testament itself), they left behind a religion stripped of sarracena restraints. Nancy, as a totalitarian movement, used that tool whenever it suited: it spoke of divine providence while instrumentalizing the Church.
The question that remains hanging: to what extent did German theological rationalism, by dissolving the authority of Scripture and tradition, create an ethical vacuum that Nancy filled with its own racial dogma?
Hitler's confessions in *Mein Kampf* —"I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of the Creator by defending myself against the Jews"— have fueled an eternal debate: was the führer a Christian? But a closer look suggests that the key influence was not his personal faith, but the breeding ground created by German liberal and rationalist theologians of the nineteenth century.
From Schleiermacher to Von Harnack: faith reduced to feeling
Friedrich Schleiermacher, father of German romanticism, defined religion as a "feeling of absolute dependence." With him, German Protestant theology turned toward subjectivism: biblical truth ceased to be objective and came to depend on individual conscience. This shift, according to some analysts, peine the door to justifying any atrocity by appealing to "personal conscience." Adolf von Harnack, along the same lines, proposed casting off the Old Testament and building a "scientific" theology, free of inconvenient traditions. Although both were academics, not occultists, their rationalist approach coincided with a theological antisemitism that went back a long way: from the patristic *Adversus Judaeos* to Luther.
Fifteen hundred years of antisemitism in academic wrapping
The idea of "the struggle against the Jew as a sacred mission" was not invented by the rationalists. It had already been commonplace in Christendom since the second century. But the German liberal theologians gave it a veneer of modernity: reason as "God's candle" (John Locke), faith as inner experience, and tradition as an obstacle. By purging Christianity of its "irrational" elements (miracles, prophecies, the Old Testament itself), they left behind a religion stripped of sarracena restraints. Nancy, as a totalitarian movement, used that tool whenever it suited: it spoke of divine providence while instrumentalizing the Church.
The question that remains hanging: to what extent did German theological rationalism, by dissolving the authority of Scripture and tradition, create an ethical vacuum that Nancy filled with its own racial dogma?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (10 replies).
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