Dear Friends,
Contents:
1) Prize awarded to Peter Hoffmann
2) Letter to the Editor: John Abbott
3) Report on Amer.Soc.Church History, Seattle
4) New issue of Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
5) Book reviews: a) John Moses, From Oxford to the Bush b) Rainer Hering,
Vom Seminar zur Universitat
6) Book notes: Hamerow on Cardinal Faulhaber
7) Work in progress: Suzanne Brown
8) Vergangenheitsbewaltigung in Canada
9) Bonhoeffer statue
1) A belated but sincere congratulations to our list-member
Peter Hoffmann of
McGill University on being awarded the 1997 Konrad Adenauer prize,
sponsored
by the Humboldt Foundation, to enable him to undertake a biography
of
General Ludwig Beck.
2) Letter to the Editor; John Abbott writes:" . . . I
certainly agree with
what appears as your main objective: to call attention to those
residual
barriers, institutional and mental, which continue to impose blinders
upon
historical inquiry into religious and church matters. Especially
welcome was
the emphasis upon the importance of social historical perspectives,
and the
potential these still hold for church history. . . .The Editorial
left me
with lingering questions, perhaps because its call for more open-endedness
was itself a little too open-ended.Some discussion of the relationship
of
the history of religion to denominational histories might be of
help in
drawing into clearer focus the tasks and possibilities that lie
ahead . . .
"
3) The American Society of Church History meeting, Seattle,
Jan10-11th 1998.
By some fortunate coincidence, this society arranged two sessions
on the
Protestant Churches in 20th centuryGermany, which provided for
five
excellent papers, and a good discussion thereafter. Both Brian
Huck and
Matthew Hockenos spoke on the significance of the Darmstadt Declaration
of
1947,and its political influence, as part of the post-1945 attempt
to come
to terms with the Protestant church's legacy, and provide guide-lines
for the
future. Dan Borg outlined the situation in the 1920s and Doris
Bergen
described the political impact of the Deutsche Christen in 1933
and 1939,
when she showed how this section of the Protestant church, in
its euphoric
enthusiasm, provided legitimisation for the new Nazi regime and
its
subsequent launching of war. Bob Goeckel gave an able account
of the
much-disputed theme of the relationship of the churches in post-1945
East Germany and the Stasi, and put this in the wider context
of the
situation in other east European churches. These were splendid
contributions
to the task of coming to terms with the past.
4) New issue of Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, 1997/1 The contents
of this
belated issue concern the topic "Buergerkriegund Religion".
and consist of
papers read in Heidelberg in November 1996, dealing with two central
problem
areas of civil war and religion, Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
5 useful
papers are in English, describing the complications of the Irish
situation.Particularly notable is Anne Herbst-Oltmanns' survey
of the
reactions of the major ecumenical organisations' attempts to bring
peace to
the Balkan region.
KZG is now into its 10th year of publication and remains an indispensable
and important resource for our subject. Subscriptions can be obtained
via
the Editor, Prof G.Besier,Kisselgasse 1, D - 69117 Heidelberg,
Germany.
5a) ed. John A.Moses with K.J.Cable et al., From Oxford to
theBush. Essays
on Catholic Anglicanism in Australia. The Centenary Essays for
the Church
Chronicle. Broughton Press, SPCK-Australia, Hall,A.C.T. and Adelaide
1997
ISBN 1 876106 06 9
In August last year we printed Matthias Zimmer's insightful review
of the
Festschrift for John Moses, honouring his years of scholarship
in the field
of German history. We now have an additional reason to honour
him with the
appearance of this new book of essays on Catholic Anglicanism
in
Australia.John Moses, who is also an Anglican priest, has gathered
a
distinguished group of authors, who seek to remind their readers
of the
richness of the Catholic tradition within the Anglican Communion,
a position
which Moses feels has been both neglected and maligned.The occasion
for this
collection came from the unearthing in the Brisbane Diocesan archive
of a
dusty file of newspaper articles, first published in 1933 to mark
the
centenary of the beginning of what became known as the Oxford
or Tractarian
Movement. This revival of the Catholic element in the Church of
England was
associated with such luminous figures as Newman, Pusey and Keble,
and
brought a new impetus to the efforts to restore church life and
liturgy. It
was translated to Australia through the recruitment of numerous
Oxford-influenced priests and scholars,many of whom served in
the Australian
colonies with distinction, founding dioceses and brotherhoods
in the bush,
and introducing an added dimension to the range of ministries
in what was
then the Church of England in Australia.Moses' book begins by
reprinting the
1933 articles, with accompanying useful biographical sketches
of the
authors, most of them prominent clerics in the Australian church
and
sympathetic to this wider understanding of Anglicanism. Their
aim was to
defend the Catholic tradition within Anglicanism against its detractors
whether from the low-church evangelical camp, who saw them as
proto-converts
to Roman Catholicism, or from Roman Catholics who rejected them
as
pseudo-Catholics, deficient because they refused to acknowledge
the plenary
authority of the Pope. John Moses' own introductory article is
hard-hitting,
even polemic, and criticizes both camps for their rigidity in
failing to
appreciate the virtues of this segment of the Anglican understanding
of
churchmanship. Catholic Anglicans, Moses believes, have rightly
stressed
the insight that Catholicism is not to be equated with obedience
to Rome, but
rather is a heritage enjoyed by the whole Church. The Church of
England
existed long before the Reformation and the Oxford Movement sought
and still
seeks to embody this continuity, rather than to stress the separation
and
subsequent Protestant emphasis since the 16th century. Its achievement
lay
in reviving the elements of beauty, richness and mystery in the
liturgy, a
strong commitment to social service, and a recognition of the
corporate
nature of the church as a whole, rather than merely the need for
individual
salvation through personal redemption.
The Australian churches of the 19th century were largely the product
of
rival missionary efforts. The result was a polarization between
the Church of
England and other denominations, and also within the Anglican
fold. The
strongest contingent of Evangelicals were to be found in Sydney
and
Melbourne, but many rural and poorer dioceses were established
and
maintained in the Catholic Anglican tradition. The consequent
tensions for
years prevented any development of a unified Australian Anglican
Church. And
the same divisions gave rise to disastrously erroneous views of
each other's
positions and often a climate of suspicion and legalistic backbiting,
which
still has not been fully overcome. Many of these disputes arose
over the
doctrine of authority in the Church, so the article by the Primate
of the
Australian Church, Keith Rayner,depicting the Anglican perspective
on this
issue, is particularly notable. In the same vein, Moses and his
colleagues
are to be congratulated on this endeavour to recapture the "Vision
Splendid"
of Catholic Anglicanism with its emphasis on historicity, catholicity
and
intellectual vitality. This intelligent collection of essays will
undoubtedly contribute to a more open and ecumenical climate in
Australia,
and at the same time also serves to give valuable insights to
church
historians elsewhere.
J.S.C.
5b) Rainer Hering, Vom Seminar zur Universitaet.
Die Religionslehrerausbildung in Hamburg zwischen Kaiserreich
und
Bundesrepublik. Hamburg: Doelling und Galitz Verlag 1997,234pp.
Rainer Hering
has spent much of the past decade producing articles about various
aspects
of religious education and educators in Hamburg. This book is
an appropriate
and very useful culmination of his efforts. Hering makes thorough
use of
church, state and private archives as well as interviews to craft
a solid
and intelligent study, providing a clear narrative about the training
of
religious education teachers in Hamburg, followed by comments
from four
participant/eye witnesses. He also gives short biographical sketches
of four
dozen individuals, along with a thorough and useful bibliography.This
book
deals with a narrow topic, focussing on the preparation of teachers
of
religion in Hamburg over a period of about a century. One is introduced
to a
long list of individuals - pastors, bishops,politicians and educators
- most
of whom have not caught our attention before and would be unlikely
to do so
outside the confinesof this book. However Hering also touches
upon several
issues of general significance.First, there is a complex of issues
surrounding religious education in modern German schools. Hering
shows that
from the Wilhelmine era on, representatives of the Lutheran church
in
Hambiurg viewed religious education as a way to forestall or reverse
the
secularization of German society. To that end they tried to achieve
greater
influence over the training and appointment of teachers of religious
education and over the content of the education provided to students.
As
Hering describes their attitude about the end of the last century:
". . .der
Schuler sollte eine persoenliche Beziehung zu Christus als dem
Erloeser
finden. . .Eine kritische Reflexion der Unterrichtsinhalte war
nicht
vorgesehen" (20).During the ensuing century such a goal proved
less and less
achievable. Although religious education remained a staple part
of the
school curriculum (non-mandatory in Hamburg since 1905), the specific
political climate in Hamburg, influenced by the SPD, and the general
direction of society, influenced by secularization and then
multiculturalism, meant that the church could never create the
system of
religious education it most desired. By the 1970s everyone recognised
that
"critical reflection" was necessary, and religious education
moved from
teaching specific Lutheran doctrine to a consideration of ethical
and
spiritual issues in the modern world. Hering also illustrates
the gradual
professionalization of schoolteaching as an occupation. During
the
Kaiserreich, university education was required only for those
destined to
teach at the secondary level. Primary teachers, by contrast, were
trained
without benefit of Abitur, and were ready to go to work by about
the age of
twenty. During the Weimar period, Hamburg created its own university
(1919)
and also began requiring a university training for all its teachers.
Hering
describes at length how this affected the provision of religious
education
for future reachers, again noting the differing expectations of
church and
state. The second important focus in this book is Hamburg itself.
For
a variety of reasons, Hamburg represents a unique locale for the
study of
religious education. Hering find comments already in the mid-19th
century
claiming that Hamburg's "real church" was the stockmarket,
and that by the
turn of the century it was considered "die unkirchlichste
Stadt des Reiches"
(22). Thus the trend towards a secular society came early in Hamburg,
so
that this analysis of the issues might claim to be a study of
the cutting
edge. It is also worth noting that Hamburg has inspired a good
deal of
important research on the Nazi era, as seen, for example, in the
work of
Ursula Buttner or Geoffrey Giles, The reserve police battalion
described by
Chris Browning, and later used by Daniel Goldhagen, also came
from
Hamburg.That points us to the Third Reich and thus to perhaps
the most
important issues described by Hering. He gives a nicely nuanced
view of
religious educators and religious education during the Nazi era.
It is clear
that religious education did not prosper, though the required
changes in
curriculum and teaching personnel took about a year and a half
to take
effect. From that point on, the Old Testament received much less
attention
and virtually all faculty were members of the Party and/or enthusiasts
of
the "Deutsche Christen"persuasion. Even that enthusiasm
did not prevent the
virtual removal of religious education from Hamburg University
after 1939-40.
The sensitivity and complexity of the Nazi past is illustrated
very nicely
in Hering's presentation. He begins, for example, by stating "Die
. .
Hinweise auf nationalsozialistische Aktivitaeten einzelnersollen
jedoch
keinen' Enthuellungcharakter' haben; eine moralischeoder gar juristische
Wertung bzw. Verurteilung ist nicht das Ziel dieser Arbeit"
(15). However,
he proceeds to describe the enthusiasm for Nazi politics and ideas
exhibited
by a number of individuals with significant post-war careers in
education
and thechurch. For example, Simon Schoeffel, Bishop of Hamburg
from1933-34
and again from 1946-54, led the right-wing"Evangelischen
Elternbund" in
Hamburg which sided with the Nazis in the elections of 1933 (35).
Hering
then adds in a footnote about Bernhard Lohse's biography: "Diese
Aspekte
werden nicht beruecksichtigt"So too Helmuth Kittel (not to
be confused with
Gerhard Kittel), a student of Emanual Hirsch, taught New Testament
in
Hamburg from 1931-33: "Lange Zeit galt Helmuth Kittel aufgrund
seiner Verkuendingungskonzeption als Anhaenger der Bekennenden
Kirche.
Tatsaechlich war er jedoch ueberzeugter Anhaenger des Nationalsozialismus
und
Deutscher Christ und hatte bis zum Beginndes Zweiten Weltkrieges
in diesem
Sinne publiziert" (64). Hering notes the anti-Jewish stress
in Kittel's
work, before and even after1945. Because of his activities and
membership in
both the NSDAP and the SA, Kittel had to teach at the Paedogogische
Hochschulen in Celle and Osnabruck before returning to a chair
in religious
education at Muenster in 1963.To cite a final example, Hering
describes the
racist language and assumptions in the writings of Kurt Leese,
professor at
Hamburg from 1935-1940, who also received an honorary doctorate
from Marburg
in 1957. Leese's voelkische and biological assumptions could be
read as
inherently National Socialist, yet he was released from the university
in
1940 on charges of being politically unreliable and a "judenfreund"
(84-87).
By describing these individuals, Hering helps to show the pervasiveness
of
ideas which undergirded the Nazi regime, and which dominated the
teaching of
religious education in Hamburg during the 1930s. Hering also argues
for
refinement in our analysis: similarities in vocabulary and discourse
do not
automatically identify individual who supported the Nazi regime
root and
branch.
Robert P.Ericksen, Olympic College, Bremerton, Washington,USA
6) Book notes; T.Hamerow contributes an insightful but critical
chapter 8 to
ed.David Wetzel, From the Berlin Museum to the Berlin Wall. Essays
on the
Cultural and Political History of Modern Germany, Praeger, Westport,
Connecticut/London 1996, pp 145-168, dealing with the career of
Cardinal
Faulhaber. Faulhaber was a "representative of an ecclesiastical
elite
in Germany that entered into a Faustian bargain with the dark
forces of
totalitarianism. . . . He was an important spiritual leader condemned
to
live in a time of destruction and cruelty. But blinded by a sense
of
national humiliation, by fear of social upheaval, by hostility
to the
secular outlook of modern society, and by nostalgia for a vanished
age of
confessional orthodoxy, he never fully grasped the universal moral
implications underlying all religious faith".:
7) Work in progress: Suzanne Brown, University of Maryland.
I am working on
the papers of Alois, Cardinal Muench, sometimePapal Visitator
to Germany
after 1945, and Catholic Liaison to theAmerican Military Government
in
Germany, now held at theCatholic University in Washington, D.C.
I am using
these as a lens to magnify the thoughts, feelings and difficulties
of
post-war German lay Catholics. I am interested in the ways in
which their
post-war identity was shaped by their experiences during the Third
Reich and
the war. Many lay Catholics wrote Muench very frank letters, and
poured out
their troubles, possibly because most Catholic newspapers described
him as a
German (his family emigrated to the USA in the 1880s) and as sympathetic
to
the sufferings of Germans, due to his pastoral letter "One
World in Charity"
published in 1945 or 1946. These letters are fascinating. So far
I have found
that most average lay Catholics felt victimized in various ways
by the
Nazis, and did not consider either non-Catholics or non-Germans
to have been
victims of Hitler. If they did consider them, Catholics felt akin
to them as
"fellow-sufferers".Such feelings left little or no room
for a sense of
responsibility or guilt for the crimes of the Third Reich.
8) Vergangenheitsbewaltigung in Canada.The following speech
was delivered by
the Minister of Indian Affairs to a large public gathering in
Ottawa on Jan
7th 1998
(Ed.note: Most of the residential schools referred to were run
by
thec hurches, and were phased out 30 years ago)
"As aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians seek to move
forward together in
a process of renewal, it is essential that we deal with the legacy
of the
past affecting the aboriginal peoples of Canada,including the
First Nations,
Inuit and Metis. Our purpose is not to rewrite history but, rather,
to learn
from our past and to find ways to deal with the negative impacts
that certain
historical decisions continue to have in our society today. The
ancestors of
First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples lived on this continent
long before
explorers from other continents first came to North America. For
thousands of
years before this country was founded, they enjoyed their own
forms of
government. Diverse, vibrant aboriginal nations had ways of life
rooted in
fundamental values concerning their relationships to the Creator,
the
environment, and each other, in the role of elders as the living
memory of
their ancestors, and in their responsibilities as custodians of
the lands,
waters and resources of their homelands. The assistance and spiritual
values
of the aboriginal peoples who welcomed the newcomers to this continent
too
often have been forgotten. The contributions made by all aboriginal
peoples
to Canada's development, and the contributions they continue to
make to our
society today, have not been properly acknowledged. The government
of Canada
today, on behalf of all Canadians,acknowledges these contributions.Sadly,
our history with respect to the treatment of aboriginal peoples
is not
something in which we can take pride.. Attitudes of racial and
cultural
superiority led to a suppression of aboriginal culture and values.
As a
country, we are burdened by past actions that resulted in weakening
the
identity of aboriginal peoples, suppressing their languages and
cultures, and
outlawing spiritual practices. We must recognize the impact of
these actions
on the once self-sustaining nations that were disaggregated,
disrupted, limited or even destroyed by the dispossession of traditional
territory, by the relocation of aboriginal people, and by some
provisions of
the Indian Act. We must acknowledge that the result of these actions
was the
erosion of the political, economic and social systems of aboriginal
peoples
and nations. Against the backdrop of these historical legacies,
it is
remarkable tribute to the strength and endurance of aboriginal
People that
they have maintained their historical diversity and identity.
The government
of Canada today formally expresses to all Aboriginal people in
Canada our
profound regret for past actions of the federal government which
have
contributed to these difficult pages in the history of our relationship
together. One aspect of our relationship with Aboriginal People
over this
period which requires particular attention is the residential
school system.
This system separated many children from their families and communities
and
prevented them from speaking their own languages and from learning
about
their heritage and cultures. In the worst cases, it left legacies
of personal
pain and distress that continue to reverberate to this day. Tragically,
some
children were the victims of physical and sexual abuse. The government
of
Canada acknowledges the role its played in the development and
administration
of these schools. Particularly tothose individuals who experienced
the
tragedy of sexual and physical abuse at residential schools, and
who have
carried this burden believing that in some way they must be responsible,
we wish to emphasise that what you experienced was not your fault
and should
never have happened. To those of you who suffered this tragedy
at
residential schools, we are deeply sorry. In dealing with the
legacies of the
residential school system, the government of Canada proposes to
work with
First Nations, Inuit and Metis people, the churches and other
interested
parties to resolve the long-standing issues that must be addressed.
We need
to work together on a healing strategy to assist individuals and
communities
in dealing with the consequences of this sad era of our history.
No attempt
at reconciliation with aboriginal people can be complete without
reference
to the sad events culminating in the death of theMetis leader
Louis Riel.
{Hanged for insurrection, 1886] These events cannot be undone;
however, we
can and will continue to look for ways to affirm the contributions
of Metis
people in Canada and of reflecting Louis Riel's proper place in
Canada's
history. Reconciliation is an ongoing process. In renewing our
partnership.we
must ensure that the mistakes which marked our past relationship
are not
repeated. The government of Canada recognizes that policies that
sought to
assimilate aboriginal people,women and men, were not the way to
build a
strong country. We must instead continue to find ways in which
aboriginal
people can participate fully in the economic, political, cultural
and social
life of Canada in a manner which preserves and enhances the collective
identities of aboriginal communities, and allows them to evolve
and flourish
in the future."
9) Bonhoeffer statue A statue of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sculpted
by Tim
Crawley, is one of10 stone carvings of Christian martyrs of the
20th century
to beplaced on the west portal of Westminster Abbey, London next
summer. The
unveiling ceremony will be held on July 9th 1998. It will be conducted
by
the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II
will attend, as will numerous church dignitaries from around the
world. A
commemorative book describing the witness of these 10 Christian
martyrs is
being edited by Dr Andrew Chandler, Directorof the George Bell
Institute,
Queen's College, University of Birmingham. The chapter on Bonhoeffer
is
contributed by Klemens von Klemperer. This should be available
in time for
the unveiling ceremony.
Our web-site, containing the index to all previous issues,
can be found at:
http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~gmork/akz/index/html
With all best wishes,
John S.Conway
jconway@unixg.ubc.ca