RICHARD STEIGMANN GALL

Analyzing the previously unexplored religious views of the Nazi elite, Richard Steigmann-Gall argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it. He demonstrates that many participants in the Nazi movement believed that the contours of their ideology were based on a Christian understanding of Germany's ills and their cure. A program usually regarded as secular in inspiration - the creation of a racialist 'people's community' embracing antisemitism, antiliberalism and anti-Marxism - was, for these Nazis, conceived in explicitly Christian terms. His examination centers on the concept of 'positive Christianity,' a religion espoused by many members of the party leadership. He also explores the struggle the 'positive Christians' waged with the party's paganists - those who rejected Christianity in toto as foreign and corrupting - and demonstrates that this was not just a conflict over religion, but over the very meaning of Nazi ideology itself.

Brillante y polémico, este excepcional estudio de Richard Steigmann-Gall analiza las hasta ahora inexploradas perspectivas religiosas de la elite nazi, afirmando que el movimiento nazi, contrariamente a la opinión convencional, no fue anticristiano y mucho menos ateísta. Asimismo, demuestra que muchos nazis sentían un vínculo personal con el cristianismo y declaraban que su ideología de antisemitismo, antimarxismo y antiliberalismo se inspiraba en valores cristianos. Su examen se centra en el concepto de «cristianismo positivo», una religión que apoyaban numerosos miembros de la cúpula del partido. También explora la lucha que éstos sostuvieron contra los paganistas del partido —quienes rechazaban el cristianismo en su globalidad por considerarlo extranjero y corruptor— y demuestra que no sólo se trató de un conflicto sobre religión, sino sobre el propio significado de la ideología nazi.