Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany.(Book Review)

Catholic Theologians in Nazi Germany. By Robert A. Krieg. New York: Continuum, 2004. 256 pp., $24.95 paper.

This excellent book profiles five highly regarded German Catholic theologians whose careers were at their height during the Nazi era. All had at least a modest interest in being influential public intellectuals whose work could speak to the issues of the day. In attempting to offer such leadership, three of the theologians profiled (Karl Eschweiler, Joseph Lortz, and Karl Adam) at least briefly expressed some support for National Socialism and its goals, especially its professed desire to renew a sense of German unity and national solidarity based on the claims of "blood" and "nature." The other two theologians profiled (Romano Guardini and Engelbert Krebs) were publicly critical of the regime from the very beginning.

This book tells a fascinating story as it traces the careers of each of these theologians in three relevant contexts: the faculty on which each served, the bishop under whom each worked, and the response of the Nazi government to the work that each produced. One watches each man wrestle with the always difficult task of discerning God's truth while also satisfying the demands of competing and conflicting authority structures. It is clear once again that "getting it right" as one tries to read the signs of the times is extremely difficult. One can easily see how thinkers whose work ended up striking selectively pro-Nazi notes in the 1933-1937 period were attempting to be loyal both to the nation in which God had placed them and the church to which they owed their primary allegiance. In retrospect, we now see that the intrinsic evil of Nazi ideology made disastrous any kind of loyalty to a nation governed by that regime. Of course, it is easier to see that now than it was then, which makes the clearsighted and ...