THE NEW PAGANISM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1935, Page 20

THE NEW PAGANISM

ALARM IN GERMANY

A;MENACE JO CHRISTIANITY

CONFESSIONS OF FAITH

■ Biological nnd racial conceptions ■based' ..upon the Gobineau-Houstori Chamberlain theories and Wagnerian romanticism are to bo found in the b'rpoks which feed the German neopagan stream as well as the more sjrictly scientific contributions of etHnology, anthropology) and Teutonic early'history and prehistory, says a writer in" the "Manchester Guardian." Perhaps in the enumeration of some of the rico-pagan teachings the ideas of Herr Rosenberg, should have an early place ; it only because of the important position lie,occupies in the Nazi State asjone-who holds,them and promotes their ,'growth. . In, Herr Rosenberg's philosophy nationalism, in which blood is so vital a'-cqntribution,, is all-important. Religion must take second place to nationalism- and the interests of the State. He believes that with the blood and the1 race go the special character,-igenius,, and the soul of individual peoples. The democratic idea he.holds to be philosophically false land opposed to, biological principles.;. Natural: law, he holds, is aristocratic. - The biologically superior elements must be promoted. The equality of; mart is an absurd teaching. 1 r There is no doubt that the religion ofvJesus:was the preaching of the doctßine'.of 'love : (Herr Rosenberg writes in his'.'-'MythusV). All religion is preeminently and in reality a spiritually stimulating,. emotion which is ■ always at!least closely related to love.- -Nobody will ' despise this feeling. It creates,-the spiritual fluid between man and man. But a German religious movement' capable of developing into a People's Church will have to teach that the ideal' of love of one's neighbour is definitely to be subordinated to;the-conception, of national teaching; that'/jio action by a German, Church can'be approved which does not first and foremost serve the interests of the security of: the. nation. An irreconcilable antagonism is revealed to doctrines which openly declare that the obligations • of- membership of the Church :stand higher than the obliga- 1 tidn'of membership of the nation. . ' COUNT KEVENTLOW. ! .Professor Bergman has laid -down, the .following confession of the Ger-1 man faith: • - I il - believe in the God qf the German religion ;'-fnthe: noble spirit of-tlio many, arid i in the; strength of my own: people. I bollevo in 1 the VHelper :Jesus who strives for the ennoblement, of .man. .1 believe In . Germany,- the original home of the sew mankind. j . Count R'evehtlow thinks that the ■Christian Churches are inadequate for the expression 'of the religious aspirations of the German people and wishes the Faith movement to be an ally of the. .Churches in combating the materialist outlook, which he regards as "sterile. The "German Faith movement (he says) .'rests on the conviction that religious longing is part of the being of ■(he German people. The,longing for religious satisfaction has never been more ardent than at the present time. But-the great mass of the, people are unable to find in Christian teaching and Christian Church dogmas the fulfilment of these cravings. The Ger;man Faith movement must offer theni an .alternative which is fashioned from the consciousness of the German inner nature. The .Faith movement therefore'offers jtself as a comrade in alli-ance-in the struggle against the widespread annihilating materialism which is destroying the people's life. The positive foundation of .the religions' b6th of Christianity and the Faith, movement is derived from the divination that there is something greater than man, that ■ something supernatural; exists which .man cannot comprehend. Both have their source in'the desire for a more perfect and a - nobler life than is available" on earth, in the feeling of guilt that is i associated with the consciousness of this imperfection, and of personal responsibility for our elevated moral plane. But.every pronouncement about an unknowable divinity must be rejected, for to.the Germanic faith everything divine is merely a parable, an allegory, a simile. The German faith regards it as arrogance 'if the Churches presume to pronounce upon the divine and seek to- compel others to their view. ■'' PROFESSOR HAUER. Professor Haver, has said that the German Faith : movement rejects the morality of the .Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments, and also opposes man-,* of the doctrines .of ihe New Testament, including the Sermon'on the Mount. Pacifism and meekness are foreign to the spirit of the German man. Nevertheless, he has also stated:— The German Faith movement and the Christian faith belong definitely together. "We desire to share in the religious teaching of the German schools and hope that coming legislation .will enable us to do so. We further wish to have established university chairs for the spreading of the Teutonic-Ger-man \, (Germanisch-Deutsch) . faith as well: .as the creation of communities. Ohe^-of our chief tasks is the teaching of the German religion to former freethinkers. . But Professor Haver has also forecast the decline of Christianity. Recently he stated:" The old Teutonic sagas, which contain, an inexhaustible wealth of the profbundest thought, should be included as valuable pre-Christian tradition in the education of the young German. . . . Christianity as the central normative power in" the German people is an episode in German history, and this episode is coming to an end. The German Faith movement reveals already, the beginnings .of .a future ritual. Prince zu Lippe, one of the powerful adherents of the sect, has offered .the movement a/site near Doberan, in Mecklenburg, for a German National Shrine, or Holy Grove. The 'German Faith movement also conducts a Youth Dedication ceremony which corresponds to confirmation-in the,, churches. Marriages are also cele-brated-by the movement. ALARM OF THE CHURCHES. '" Both the Protestant and the Catholic Churches" in Germany are in a state of considerable alarm ■at the growth of necHpaganism, which they regard as a menace to Christianity and the Churches. The threat to Christianity is.'not regarded as. lying in the exist-ing-adult membership of two to three millions which the German Faith movenient/ahd allied isects have,, nor even in .the .work the neo-pagan movement is doing to gain converts by its meetings and its literature.. In.theview of ministers and priests, the danger lies in the universal secularism of youth which'has been effected in the Nazi State by the absorption of the Protestant andthe Catholic Youth movements into thie Hitler Youth, which, of course, includes'the■ German .Girls' League, / and the' exposure' of youth to paganistie .influences' in these organisations. It is in the State youth organisations, which- are' controlled by Rosenberg and-Baldur yon Schirach and their col-, laboratory, that youth are- taught to be Nazis;and learn the rudiments of the Nazi political faith, largely by read-

ings from and lectures upon Hitler's "My Struggle"—hardly a work of Christian - morals—and Rosenberg's paganistic "Mythus." These courses are supplementary to what the young people learn of "Blood and Soil" doctrines in the schools themselves. The effectl of the anti-Christian doctrines they, imbibe is stated to be slow-work-ing because the text-books are not modes of clear exposition,, but regularly repeated doses have their results.