Issue: Summer 2014 | Posted: June 2, 2014

1050 U.U. Drive

George examines Christian witness in Nazi Germany

A visiting lecturer this spring asked the Union community to consider the plight of Christians who lived in Nazi Germany, noting that Christians today face challenges in the battle for life and religious freedoms.

Timothy George, founding dean of the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, referenced the Barmen Declaration, which was a theological declaration consisting of six articles stating the believers’ allegiance to God alone.

“Our situation is not the same as it was in 1930’s Germany, but there is continuity,” George said. “We have to be aware of what happened in Germany and ask ourselves what we would do if we lived back then.”

George is writing a book about the Barmen Declaration and the Christian witness in Nazi Germany. The declaration came after Hitler’s regime attempted to blend Nazi ideology with Christian theology in state-run churches.

“A lot of people who stood strong in 1934 wilted at the end of the day when the test really came,” George said. “What would you have done? And what will we do today, tomorrow or five years from now when these questions are knocking at our front door?”

George was the speaker for the 16th annual Scholar-in-Residence Lecture Series, sponsored by Union’s Honors Community.