Lent Group – 20th Century Crises: Nazi Germany & the Soviet State

Though foreshadowed in the French Revolution, it was the 20th century that saw the emergence of ideological states that challenged the very existence of Christianity in their domains. For the first time since the persecutions of pre-Constantinian Rome, the issue between Church and state became one of survival.

Yet both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia allowed Christianity a space, even if one that was diminished and corrupted. So the relation between Church and state in those countries was complex as well as violent; some Christians continued to feel a duty to the established powers, destructive though they were of Christian institutions and murderous to individual believers. Some set up oppositional structures; others attempted to live their faith in conformity to state power. Many of these choices remain real for believers in China today.

This week we shall be talking about the new problem posed for the Church by ideological power, power that offers a view of human existence, social as well as individual, that is contrary to the faith. We shall be looking at the actions and thoughts of such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred within this conflict.