Hitler's Religion: The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich

by Richard Weikart

Overview

For a man whom history can never forget, Adolf Hitler remains a persistent mystery on one front—his religious faith. Atheists tend to insist Hitler was a devout Christian. Christians counter that he was an atheist. And still others suggest that he was a practicing member of the occult.

None of these theories are true, says historian Richard Weikart. Delving more deeply into the question of Hitler's religious faith than any researcher to date, Weikart reveals the startling and fascinating truth about the most hated man of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler was a pantheist who believed nature was God. In Hitler's Religion, Weikart explains how the laws of nature became Hitler's only moral guide—how he became convinced he would serve God by annihilating supposedly "inferior" human beings and promoting the welfare and reproduction of the allegedly superior Aryans in accordance with racist forms of Darwinism prevalent at the time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621575009
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	11/21/2016
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Richard Weikart is professor of modern European history at California State University, Stanislaus. His has published five previous books, including The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life (2016), From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2004), and Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Process (2009). He has published scholarly articles in journals such as German Studies Review and Journal of the History of Ideas. He has appeared in several documentaries, and his work has been featured and discussed in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, National Review, Christianity Today, World magazine, various radio shows, and other venues.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 Was Hitler a Religious Hypocrite? 1

2 Who Influenced Hitler's Religion? 15

3 Was Hitler an Atheist? 39

4 Was Hitler a Christian? 67

5 Did Hitler Want to Destroy the Churches? 107

6 Did Hitler Derive His Anti-Semitism from Christianity? 147

7 Was Hitler an Occultist or Paganist? 173

8 Who Was Hitler's Lord? 195

9 Was Hitler a Creationist? 221

10 Was Hitler's Morality Based on Religion? 245

Conclusion 275

A Note on Sources 281

Acknowledgments 287

Notes 289

Index 381

Editorial Reviews

"Atheists who claim that Hitler was a Christian will be sorely disappointed by this excellent and well documented book. It clearly shows the anti-Christian nature of Hitler’s ideology and religious beliefs. Given today’s culture wars it is essential reading for all Christians and anyone interested in knowing the truth about National Socialism."
— IRVING HEXHAM, professor of religious studies, University of Calgary, and author of Understanding World Religions



"This fascinating and elegantly written new book will challenge scholars to rethink existing interpretations of 'Hitler’s Religion.' In ten well-researched and tightly argued chapters, Weikart shows that Hitler was neither an atheist, a Christian, nor an occultist. Rather, he marshals convincing evidence that Hitler was a pantheist who embraced a brutal, Darwinian religion of nature."
— DR. ERIC KURLANDER, professor of modern European history, Stetson University, and author of Living with Hitler and (forthcoming) Nazi Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich



"Many prominent Western intellectuals have dispensed with the view that humans are created in the image of God and thus have immeasurable value and inalienable rights,’ writes Professor Weikart. In my four decades of speaking in university open forums, I have witnessed the logical consequences of this belief that humanity is a cosmic accident: wherever I go I meet student after student troubled by haunting questions of meaning and purpose. Weikart demonstrates the impoverishment of philosophies that reject the Judeo-Christian worldview—but ‘still retain some of the vestiges of the Judeo-Christian morality that they claim to spurn'—and shows how Christianity uniquely makes sense of our questions of meaning, purpose, morality, and dignity. His book [The Death of Humanity] will sober and challenge you."
— RAVI ZACHARIAS, speaker and author of Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality , and other books

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