Combatting Totalitarianism: The Legacies of St. Paul and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Collapse of the "Murderous Utopias" of Communism and National Socialism

St. Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, has bequeathed guidelines for both personal and political behavior to individual citizens and to states that have retained their relevance to humanity to this day. However, his statement in Romans 13 that ""the powers-that-be are ordained of God"" has been interpreted in conflicting ways, especially since the time of Martin Luther in sixteenth-century Germany. Luther's occasional insistence that the ruler had to be obeyed unquestionably led to a political culture in Prusso-Germany that was systematized by the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831). His teachings gave rise to the disastrous ultra-authoritarian regimes of both Marxist-Leninism (left-wing Hegelianism) and National Socialism (right-wing Hegelianism). The author of this book, being equipped with a long training in Prusso-German history, has explained how this happened and why both Imperial Germany and the Nazi Third Reich unleashed expansionist wars and justified them with ideologies that were both hostile to Western European and transatlantic democratic, parliamentary values. The author's familiarity with the contemporary history of both the liberal-parliamentary West Germany and the authoritarian communist East Germany has enabled him to portray the internecine German debate that was largely influenced by the remarkable ministry of the martyred Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

About the Author :
John Moses is a practicing Anglican priest and formerly professor of modern history at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and is now a professorial associate at St Mark's National Theological Centre in Canberra, Australia.

Review :
"In his tenth decade, the priest-historian John Moses here sums up his life's work. From his rigorous Anglo-Catholic formation in a then-remote Queensland to the center of German intellectual life, with an abiding commitment to the gospel and its radical implications, Fr. Moses is uniquely placed to reinterpret and to challenge the shape-shifting specter of totalitarianism, which is timely, since the barbarians are no longer at the gates but within them." --Scott Cowdell, research professor in theology, Charles Sturt University "Writing from the heart of the Christian tradition, John Moses subjects the twentieth century's most destructive totalitarianisms, Soviet Marxist-Leninism and German Nazism, to a withering critique. His extensive knowledge of modern German history and philosophy and his profound rootedness in Christian faith makes him uniquely qualified to evaluate the disastrous consequences of all totalitarianisms. Deeply influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Moses shows how a commitment to Christian faith provides a foundation to critique all absolutisms." --Paul Collins, author of The Birth of the West "A historian's profession of faith: John Moses is uniquely placed to present these deep reflections on the meaning of twentieth-century German history. A trained theologian, he has been a distinguished researcher in the field of modern German history for over six decades. Moses is unafraid to put ultimate questions of belief, and of the fate of Christianity and its adversaries, at the center of his reading of German history." --Andrew Bonnell, associate professor of history, University of Queensland