LUTHER'S CHURCH UNDER HITLER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

LUTHER'S CHURCH UNDER HITLER.

Witli tlic future of the liitlor regime depending in part upon tlie outcome of the religious struggle at present going on in Germany, there is a particular interest attaching to any book which sets out to define tlie points at issue and elucidate tlie situation. Dr. Otto Piper in "Recent Developments in German Protestantism" (Student Christian Movement Press) takes as liis main problem the extent to which Christianity can attain a national form without losing its universality and absoluteness. That religion must aim at a national form lie takes as a general law in the history of religion, afnl ho does not consider any other possibility. He analyses tlie German soul, giving as i,ts three main characteristics pessimism and the desire for absolute independence precariously balanced by willingness to subject itself to authority. From this basis lie proceeds to explain the history of the Protestant Church in Germany with its various sects, the effect of the. war on tlie spiritual outlook of the people, and the point of view of the younger generation. For the present state of chaos he blames Satan. "We could not say that the German Christians are Satan's servants and their adversaries God's ministers," he concludes. "The actual struggle is an attempt of Satan to deviate both groups from the essential problem. Both are deceived."