Two Kingdoms in the Third Reich - Professor Alec Ryrie

00:00 // Introduction: Godwin’s Law and the Secular Definition of Evil
01:53 // Christianity’s Failure to Confront Nazism
03:13 // Nazi Beliefs: Religion, Race, and "Positive Christianity"
05:48 // Centuries of Christian Anti-Judaism
07:12 // Modern Anti-Semitism in Protestant Thought
09:29 // German Protestantism After WWI
10:52 // Hitler’s Rise and Early Christian Reactions
13:02 // The Two Kingdoms Doctrine and Political Submission
15:13 // Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Early Resistance
18:29 // Church Fear, Hope, and Complicity
21:02 // Rise of the German Christians Movement
24:00 // Theology of Race and Nazi Christianity
26:41 // Rejection and Decline of the German Christians
29:41 // The Empty Shell of a Nazified Christianity
33:00 // The Confessing Church: Limited but Real Resistance
35:52 // Compromise, Anti-Semitism, and Niemöller’s Contradictions
39:59 // Carl Barth and Theological Critique from Abroad
42:26 // Small Acts of Resistance and the Jehovah’s Witnesses
44:55 // The Church’s Missed Opportunity to Influence Morality
46:44 // The Aktion T4 Program and Early Opposition
48:44 // Bishop von Galen’s Pivotal Sermon
50:48 // Could the Churches Have Done More?
52:00 // Final Reflections: Complicity, Resistance, and Moral Clarity

Nazism was not a Christian movement in any meaningful sense.

German Protestants of the 1920s and 1930s shared many Nazi assumptions and voted disproportionately for the Nazi party, partly in the hope that they might use it for their own ends. One result was the German Christian movement, which tried to create a dejudaised Christianity which the Nazi state would accept with a place in the coming Aryan utopia. Many moderate, sensible Christians in Germany, even in the supposedly anti-Nazi 'Confessing Church', collaborated with the regime in other ways. This lecture will explore how so many Christians came to support Nazism, and how some managed to oppose it.

[timothygibson]

This series should be required watching for all "Christians".

[fr.michaelknipe]

Professor Ryrie is so effective. Direct, clear, fact based. Excellent

[jamesangus]

His last comment is so true. ‘The only reason that we do not share in the guilt of Germans in WWII is because we were not there’. We should never doubt our own ability to acquiesce in behaviour that hurts someone else, but not us.

[Mike_Regan]

_"..the 1920s had been something of an ordeal..."_
The British gift for understatement.

[stevenbrown]

Thank you for this lecture. Clear and concise delivery.

[JoeJohnston-taskboy]

“We were not there” is a potent reminder that all humans are vulnerable to herd instincts (q.v. the Milgram experiment). Perhaps the lesson of 1920s Germany is to strongly oppose thuggish outgroups as early as possible, when such movements are weakest.

[singingphysics]

I especially liked the ending. It's very easy to criticise others from a safe distance and pretend that we would never have behaved as they did

[karldavis]

After seeing the part about Bishop Otto Dibelius at 11:56, I assumed his career was ruined. Nope. I looked him up on Wikipedia. He sailed right through it and continued to hold high ranking church positions for the rest of his life.

[maggiebee]

His conclusion is very timely, given the recent enthusiasms for reinterpreting history through 21st century sensibilities. An interesting and informative lecture.

[ManuelBTC]

52:00 "There is only one reason that we do not share in their guilt, it is that we were not there".

Very correct, so what is the consequence? What has truly changed about how we conduct politics? The lesson that should have been learned is that centralized power will always be abused. Every call for a political reform, every advocate for a government program is vesting power in an institution and putting us at risk to be in the same situation as our great grandparents. Liberty and personal responsibility are what we should have learned, but the secular religion of the state, our savior the government is as alive today as ever.

[ronrice]

"There is only one reason that we do not share in that guilt, and that is that we were not there." Heck of a mic drop. If that is the case then we are guilty: guilty of tending to act the same way -- the grain of truth in Original Sin. Great lecture!

[WildBillCox]

A very useful lecture. Thanks for posting, Gresham!

[emmcee]

Truly excellent presentation - food for much thought

[nategilbert]

Outstanding. Thank you, Prof. Alec Ryrie, for your passionate and insightful lecture. As I watch some of these same activities and prejudices rampaging through the political system and electorate of my country, I fear for the future. I have tried to avoid the "Nazi" argument when addressing my concerns about Donald Trump's presidential administration, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the obvious comparisons.

[OktoberFilms]

That last sentence struck hard. Because it’s true.

[danielintheantipodes]

Brilliant lecture. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for this.

[jonmeador]

Very few opposed fascism because they lacked the moral character to do so. It's a shame when the very institutions that claim - wrongly so clearly - to own the exclusive rights to morality fail so miserably.

[nightoftheworld]

25:07 _”True Christian love means protecting the nation from the feckless and inferior.”_ Some wild interpretations..

[WildBillCox]

And this is how I spend my early afternoon, before I return to working on art. Historical perspective is crucial to examination of period literature and arts.

Thanks, Gresham!

[todddweiner]

Incredible presentation and sublime conclusions, one of the best talks, if not they best, on the topic I’ve heard to date