The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm

by Joseph Loconte, Karl Barth (Contributor), John Bennett (Contributor)

The rise of Islamic radicalism has led to heated discussions about how best to address the threat of religious terror. Disputes covering the right and wrong of war with Iraq, and the even bigger war on terrorism, continue to rage across America. But this is not the first argument of this nature―America was faced with a similar moral dilemma on the eve of World War II. Fascism was conquering Europe, and religious leaders across the nation vehemently debated how to confront Nazi Germany. In The End of Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm, Joseph Loconte brings together pieces from the most significant religious thinkers of the pre-war period. In these essays, the writers eloquently and passionately present their arguments for going to war or maintaining the peace. In doing so, they explore issues vibrantly relevant today, including the Christian cause for war, the problem of evil, and America's role in the world. These urgently written pieces connect the past with the present and resonate with renewed clarity and poignancy.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2004

About the author

Joseph Loconte, PhD, is an Associate Professor of History at The King’s College in New York City, where he teaches Western Civilization and American Foreign Policy.

Loconte previously served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, where he taught on religion and public policy. He was a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and from 1999-2006 he held the first chair in religion as the William E. Simon Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Loconte is the author of The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt (Thomas Nelson, 2012) and God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West (Lexington Books, 2014). His other books are The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler’s Gathering Storm (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004) and Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services (The Pioneer Institute, 1997). His commentary on religion and democracy, human rights, and international religious freedom appears in the nation’s leading media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, and National Public Radio. He is also a regular contributor to the London-based Standpoint Magazine and Italy’s La Stampa.

Loconte has testified before Congress on international human rights and served as a human rights expert on the 2005 Congressional Task Force on the United Nations, contributing to its final report, “American Interests and U.N. Reform.” He was an informal advisor/speechwriter for British MP Andrew Mitchell, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. From 2001-2003, he was an informal advisor to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He now serves as a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum and as an affiliated scholar at the John Jay Institute.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Loconte divides his time between New York City and the Washington, D.C. area.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing collection. Not that every individual essay is amazing; many are not, but the value is having them collected together. The authors who most impressed me with their insight (again: not that every word from them was good) were: Charles Clayton Morrison, Paul Blakey, Reinhold Niebuhr and Lewis Mumford.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite authors, Joseph Loconte ( ‘The Searchers’ and ‘A Hobbit, A Wardrobe And A Great War’ ) compiled and edited this look at religious leaders response to Hitler and Naziism in the wake of WWI. The Kings College Professor takes us back in time to read the fierce debates that went to print in the 30’s and 40’s, including Karl Barth, Stephen Wise and Lewis Mumford - names rarely known now, who passionately reasoned against the prevailing pacifistic, isolationist leaders who relativized evil, discarded moral absolutes and deemed all men to be good creatures, given a fair chance. In this read, I saw again, how narrow that Allied victory truly was.
Plenty of take away quotes equally appropriate for our perilous times. A lengthy, rewarding read.