Against the Third Reich: Paul Tillich's Wartime Radio Broadcasts into Nazi Germany

by Paul Tillich, Ronald H. Stone (Editor), Matthew Lon Weaver (Editor)

Paul Tillich, one of the greatest Protestant theologians of modern times, wrote more than one hundred radio addresses that were braodcast into Nazi Germany from March 1942 through May 1944. The broadcasts were passionate and political--urging Germans to recognize the horror of Hitler and to reject a morally and spiritually bankrupt government. Laregly unknown in the United States, the broadcasts have been translated into English for the first time, and approximately half of them are presented in this book.

Genres: Religion

284 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 1998

About the author

Paul Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was – along with his contemporaries Rudolf Bultmann (Germany), Karl Barth (Switzerland), and Reinhold Niebuhr (United States) – one of the four most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century. Among the general populace, he is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957), which introduced issues of theology and modern culture to a general readership. Theologically, he is best known for his major three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63), in which he developed his "method of correlation": an approach of exploring the symbols of Christian revelation as answers to the problems of human existence raised by contemporary existential philosophical analysis.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tillich calls on Germans to break with the spirit of National Socialism in his wartime radio broadcasts. A portal into his theology, abstract ideas about the Christian call become rooted within a complex and current narrative addressed through his speeches. At times repetitive, at most times poignant, this book tackles an unfolding narrative with prophetic prose.

[John]

Read this in two days. The fastest Tillich read ever due to simplicity of language and repetition of themes. Very prescient man in terms of the fate of Germany after the war. I didn't realize he had broadcast to the Germans on Voice of America until I came across this book in my university library.