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From Resistance to Liberation Theology: German Theologians and the Non/ Resistance to the National Socialist Regime

In this article I wish to examine the connection between both Christian theology and Christian resistance to the National Socialist regime in Germany and the development of a new political theology in postwar Germany. By "theology" I mean the academic reflection upon the Christian faith; and by "resistance" I mean the opposition in word and action to Hitler's or any related form of ideological theory and praxis. I wish to approach this complex subject matter from our current need to discuss the theological implications of the overall lack of organized theological resistance to the Nazi regime. Of course, the Barmen Declaration of 1934 and its spiritual father, Karl Barth, are well remembered for their brave attack on the Nazi regime; and the thoughts, actions, and long suffering of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemoller, and other individual Christians are not forgotten. But my thesis is that there was at first no constructive theology of resistance to the National Socialist revolution in the Third Reich. Moreover, at that time there was no solid theological foundation available upon which a theology of resistance could have been constructed. Dimensions of such a theology of resistance only emerged in response to the unfolding totalitarian nature of Hitler's regime-too late, however, to affect the regime itself in any significant way. In the first section I shall reflect briefly on the political dimension of theology in Germany prior to 1933. In the second section I shall review theological motives in the emerging Christian resistance to the Nazi regime. In the third section I shall discuss contemporary approaches to theological resistance that have been developed in reaction to the failure of much of German theology during Hitler's reign.