© 1977 by American Academy of Religion
Abstracts of Articles |
Hitler's National Socialism as a Religious Movement
Gary Lease (Dr. theol., Munich, 1968) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Author of Witness to the Faith (1971), he has also provided editions and critical studies of Harnack's, Sohm's, and Stutz's correspondences in the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte-Kanonistische Abteilung 91 (1975)
Since before 1945 many have dedicated themselves to analyzing the National Socialist Movement in Germany as an ideological event. Strangely, there has been little attention paid to the remarkable parallels in this Movement with aspects of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Even more striking, there has been little notice of the similarity between Hitler's National Socialism and the religious phenomenon in general. This aspect, however, is of such fundamental importance to understanding the National Socialist Movement that it must be made more explicit.
Of key importance in pursuing such an investigation is the realization of the general nature of any religious movement. Such a movement is always ideological in character and strives to establish a representative and all-inclusive understanding of reality. This understanding, once communicated as knowledge, is then extended to encompass all of a particular society's life. These various stages in the development of a religion are seen to be paralleled in the National Socialist experience.
Carl Schmitt, a young Catholic legal scholar, pointed this out as early as 1922 in his fundamental piece on Political Theology. This work provided a theological foundation for the establishment of the dictatorship in the political sphere which was later established by Hitler's National Socialist Movement. More important, however, are the direct religious parallels to be found in some neglected witnesses to Hitler's thought and development; i.e., in a number of the early propaganda films from 1933 and 1934. An analysis of them shows a remarkable attempt to construct a national and socially valid liturgical act representing key elements from the Judeo-Chrustian tradition.
One also finds in selected Christian thinkers, such as Faulthaber and Schmaus, remarkable agreement and support for the major theological/political tenants of the National Socialist Movement. In fact, every effort is made on their part to incorporate those insights into the Christian tradition as they understand it, while at the same time trying to provide legitimacy for them by using that very same tradition. The investigation is thus able to conclude with a preliminary "theology" of Hitler's National Socialist Movement, pointing out the clear and unmistakable parallels and points of departure common to it and the Judeo-Christian Messianic tradition. It will be difficult in the future to ignore the fact that this kind of political and social movement is often, if not exclusively, to be understood as an extension of the religious understanding and tradition of the particular society in which it takes shape.