ISBN: 9780691101620

Paperback / softback. New. The power of modernity to secularise has been a foundational idea of the western world. Both social science and church history understood that the Christian re… More...

Paperback / softback. New. The power of modernity to secularise has been a foundational idea of the western world. Both social science and church history understood that the Christian religion from 1750 was deeply vulnerable to industrial urbanisation and the Enlightenment. But as evidence mounts that countries of the European world experienced secularising forces in different ways at different periods, the timing and causes of de-Christianisation are now widely seen as far from straightforward. Secularisation in the Christian World brings together leading scholars in the social history of religion and the sociology of religion to explore what we know about the decline of organised Christianity in Britain, Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. The chapters tackle different strands, themes, comparisons and territories to demonstrate the diversity of approach, thinking and evidence that has emerged in the last 30 years of scholarship into the religious past and present. The volume includes both new research and essays of theoretical reflection by the most eminent academics. It highlights historians and sociologists in both agreement and dispute. With contributors from eight countries, the volume also brings together many nations for the first consolidated international consideration of recent themes in de-Christianisation. With church historians and cultural historians, and religious sociologists and sociologists of the godless society, this book provides a state-of-the-art guide to secularisation studies., 6, Paperback / softback. New. This book probes the background of the ultimately unexplainable evil of our century, the deliberate and unprovoked murder of millions of European Jews--and goes on to explore German reactions to that evil. Depicting the emergence in Weimar Germany of a new type of extreme anti-Semite, of which Hitler was the paramount example, Sarah Gordon discusses a number of related questions about the role of anti-Semitism in the rise of the Nazis and draws on hitherto unexamined Gestapo files, new data on court sentences, and a variety of other sources to describe the tiny numbers of courageous Germans who opposed Nazi anti-Semitism. She analyzes Hitler's own deranged world view, his use of his feelings about Jews as a political tool, and the extent of the German people's knowledge of his intentions and actions; she examines the history of German anti-Semitism from 1870 through the Nazi years; and she indicates several reasons for thinking that anti-Semitism, however virulent in certain individuals and groups, was not the major reason for Nazi electoral successes. No apologia for the German people, this work shows how a minority of extreme anti-Semites coexisted in Germany with the indifferent or fearfully disapproving majority, while the heroic few assumed the extreme risks of opposition. It offers a clear picture of the kinds of people who aided the Jews or publicly criticized their persecution, including surprising evidence of opposition in the Nazi party itself. In addition, it questions widely held beliefs that older Germans, males, Protestants, and the middle classes were disproportionately anti-Semitic; that bluecollar workers were basically immune to anti-Semitism; and that most Nazis were radical anti-Semites. It also discusses such subjects as the attitudes of German churches, the role of the military, and the socio-economic characteristics of Jews in Germany., 6<

1984, ISBN: 0691101620

Kartoniert / Broschiert HISTORY / Europe / Germany, Deutschland, mit Schutzumschlag 11, [PU:Princeton University Press]