BA (Hons), MA, History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK

PhD, History, McGill University, Montreal, QC

Religious Nationalism in Nazi Germany

North American Religious Responses to the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938

Integration of Christianity and History

For the online version of the Faith and Fatherland book talk, please scroll down to the "Blind Spots: Religion and Nationalism" section below.

After completing a BA (high honours) in history at the University of Saskatchewan, I remained in Saskatoon to study for an MA degree in history under Dr. Peter Bietenholz, an eminent Erasmus scholar. My MA thesis (Guilds and reformation: Basel in the 1520s) examined the relationship between the religious and political aspects of reform in the Swiss city of Basel, tracing events from the infiltration of Lutheran ideas into local monasteries and churches through the heated and periodically violent debates around the idea of church reform to the eventual victory (at cannon point!) of the Reformation in Basel.

I went on to earn a PhD in history at McGill University, under the guidance of Dr. Peter Hoffmann, FRSC, a leading authority on the German Resistance to Hitler. In my dissertation, I examined the relationship between religion and nationalism in National Socialist Germany "from the bottom up," through the eyes of pastors and parishioners in three different regions of Germany. Doing that meant focusing on some different events and issues than normally considered in the history of this period: pastors and German nationalism, parish life under National Socialism, pastoral appointments as a battleground in the so-called "German Church Struggle," church responses to Nazi racial policy, and the ins and outs of local church politics during the time of the Third Reich. All this is now published in my book: Faith and Fatherland: Parish Politics in Hitler's Germany (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008). You can see what other scholars are saying about it at the Association of Contemporary Church Historians or at H-German (part of H-Net, the Humanities and Social Sciences Online).

I now teach various aspects of European, world, and religious history. One of my favourite (though difficult) courses to teach is on the history of antisemitism and the Holocaust. I grew interested in this field not only through my PhD research on the German churches, but also through a two-week summer institute on the Holocaust and Jewish civilization that I participated in at Northwestern University, way back in 1999. My goal in the course is to introduce students to the long and complex history of antisemitism andto help them understand the detailed process through which Hitler and his Nazi regime moved from policies of persecution to an organized quest to annihilate the Jews of Europe. Out of that, I'm convinced students will also gain a greater understanding of the ways in which political extremism operates in our world today, complete with policies of violence, marginalization, and even so-called ethnic cleansing. I also hope that they and I will grow in our empathy for and responsiveness to persecuted peoples.

Recently, I've also begun to do a little research in the field of Holocaust history. In 2007, I was invited to join a group of scholars from the United States and Britain for a two-week summer research workshop on "American Religious Responses to Kristallnacht," hosted by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We were considering the way that Jews, Catholics, and Protestants all reacted to the terrible antisemitic pogrom of November 1938, when synagogues throughout Germany were burnt down, Jewish shop-windows were smashed, Jewish homes were invaded, and roughly 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and placed in concentration camps. Recently, I published a chapter ("'The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man': Mainline American Protestants and the Kristallnacht Pogrom") in American Religious Responses to Kristallnacht (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Next I hope to develop a web project from that research--a collection of transcripts from the radio broadcasts of protest speeches, together with some historical background and commentary. Right now, the working title is Anti-Nazi Radio: Allied Religious Broadcasts in the Wake of Kristallnacht.

Beyond that, I love to give historical presentations in middle schools and high schools, and for church groups. Most especially, I have enjoyed thinking about and discussing the historical background to church-state relations in the western world, as a speaker in the Manning Centre for Building Democracy "Faith-Political Interface" seminars. You can read a published version of these talks here .

In May 2009, I had the great privilege of leading "From Wittenberg to Geneva ... in the Footsteps of the Reformers," a two-week study tour in Germany and Switzerland. Our goal was to understand how (and where) reformers like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin renewed and revived Christianity, transforming their societies through the power of the word of God. Along the way, we saw medieval castles, the Berlin Wall, Martin Luther's house in Wittenberg, and the Wartburg, the castle where he translated the New Testament into everyday German. In Erfurt, we lodged in the former Augustinian Monastery where Luther lived and studied, and in Eisenach, we went to church at St. George's, where four generations of the Bach family played organ.

Outside of academics, I'm married to Colleen, and we have four children: three in school and one adult. I love sports of all kinds (football, hockey, Euro soccer, etc.), driving around in my 1977 Porsche 924 (not fast, but cool!), and serving on the board at High River Alliance Church and chairing the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) board for the Town of High River.

If you would like to know more about the history program at Ambrose or want to arrange for me to speak to a group about historical or Christian themes, please contact me by phone or email.

Public Speaking

I have spoken extensively in schools, churches, retreats and conferences, and am available to teach, speak, or preach on a variety of topics, including:

• Nazism and Christianity (the German "Church Struggle")
• Germany between the two World Wars and the rise of National Socialism (good for middle or high school Social Studies classes)
• The history of antisemitism, Nazi Jewish policy, and the events of the Holocaust (again, good for middle or high school Social Studies classes)
• Responses to the Holocaust among Canadian and American Christians
• Genocide and contemporary human rights issues
• The Kingdom of God, compassion, and social justice
• Christian roots: early Christian worship, early Christian creeds, and the emergence of the Bible
• People and events in church history
• How Christian history enriches contemporary faith
  
• Christian devotion through the centuries
  
• Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
• Other topics in world and western history
  
• History and Hollywood movies
• Other biblical themes

Blind Spots: Religion and Nationalism

An Ambrose Library Book Talk based on:

Faith and Fatherland:

Parish Politics in Hitler's Germany

I am curious about how ordinary people tried to fuse such mutually exclusive sets of values--so we would argue in hindsight--as those of Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler. In this talk (as in my book), I examine the stories of pastors and parishioners across Hitler's Germany, trying to understand the personal decisions people made and the practical outworking of large political or religious issues in the ordinary realm of local church life.

Download the Podcast (mp3) or click on the links below to view the audio and PowerPoint together(wmv).

Part One: Introduction

Part Two: National Socialism and Protestant Renewal

Part Three: Race and the Jewish Question

Part Four: Martin Luther Memorial Church

• "Protestants in Nazi Germany: Learning from Local Church History." In Catholics, Protestants and Nazis: A Reader. Edited by Mark Ruff. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Forthcoming.
• "The Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man': Mainline American Protestants and the Kristallnacht Pogrom." In American Religious Responses to Kristallnacht. Edited by Maria Mazzenga. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. (Available here)
• Faith and Fatherland: Parish Politics in Hitler's Germany. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008. (Available here)
• "Christianity and Politics, Past and Present." C2C: Canada's Journal of Ideas, 3 (2008); available at http://www.c2cjournal.ca/blog-articles/view/christianity-and-politics-past-and-present ; Internet.
• Review of Erwin Peter Jikeli, Siebenbuergisch-saechsische Pfarrer, Lehrer und Journalisten in der Zeit der kommunistischen Diktatur (1944-1971), The Catholic Historical Review Vol. 95, no. 4 (October 2009): 869-871.
• Review of Father Patrick Desbois, The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priests Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews, H-German Internet discussion forum; available at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=24952 ; Internet.
• Review of Joerg Friedrich, The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945, Fides et Historia, 41(1) Winter 2009.
• Review of Karolina Lanckoronska, Michelangelo in Ravensbrueck, H-German Internet discussion forum; available at http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=23782 ; Internet.
• Goodyear and Galileo. Op/Ed Article for the Calgary Herald, Sunday, March 22, 2009; available at http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=ecf70411-1883-4678-b072-888cdbed2db6&p=1 ; Internet.
  

Recent Conference Papers

• "Preaching Towards the Fuehrer: Pro-Nazi Protestants and the Place of Religion in Hitler's Germany," Paper presented at the Ambrose Research Conference, Ambrose University College, Calgary, AB, March 2010.
• "Our Jewish Brethren: Christian Responses to Kristallnacht in Canadian Mass Media," Paper co-presented with Jonathan Durance at the 40th Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA, March 2010, and at the Tolle Lege Lecture Series, Prairie Bible College, Three Hills, AB, March 2010.
• "Blood and Race or Sin and Salvation: Parish Pastors Debate Rosenberg's Mythos," Paperpresented at the German Studies Association Conference, Washington D.C., October 2009.
• "Protests and Petitions: American and Canadian Protestant Responses to the Kristallnacht Pogrom," Paper presented at the Lessons and Legacies Conference 2008, Northwestern University, Chicago, November 2008.
• "American Protestants and the Reichskristallnacht Pogrom: Overview and Suggestions for Further Research." Paper presented at the International Summer Research Workshop for Scholars, "American Religious Organizations and Responses to the Holocaust in the United States: Reichskristallnacht as a Case Study," Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., August 2007.
• "Enlisting the Infantry of God': Assessing Competition between Pro-Nazi Protestants in the Third Reich." Paper presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, Saskatoon, SK, May 2007.

Recent Awards

• Participant, 2009 Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar, "The Holocaust and Other Genocides: Historical Contexts, Legal Issues, and Ethical Dilemmas," Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., January 2009.
• Invited Participant, International Summer Research Workshop for Scholars, "American Religious Organizations and Responses to the Holocaust in the United States: Reichskristallnacht as a Case Study," Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., August 2007.
• Participant, Annual Seminar for Seminary and Religious Studies Faculty, "The Holocaust and the Christian Churches: Teaching this History Today," Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., May 2007.

Public Speaking and Other Scholarly Activity

• Managing Editor, ACCH Quarterly (Association of Contemporary Church Historians). http://journal.ambrose.edu/acch.
• Member, High School Flexibility Enhancement Pilot Project External Advisory Committee, Alberta Education.
• Speaker, "William Wilberforce's Abolition Campaign as a Model for Political Action," Presentation at the Ambrose Global Impact Day: Stop the Traffic, March 2010.
• Speaker, "Civil Religion and Political Religion in Nazi Germany," Guest Lecture at Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, March 2010.
• Instructor, "The Expansion of the Christian Movement," for the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course, Saskatoon, SK, February 2010.
• Author, "Technology: Beneficial but not Neutral," Anthem: The Magazine of Ambrose University College, Fall/Winter (2009/2010): 3.
Presenter, "Response to Doris Bergen, Nazi Revolution as Christian Revival?: The Kristallnacht Pogrom and the Patterns of 1933-38.'" Lebel Lecture in Christian Ethics, Chair of Christian Thought, University of Calgary, November 2009.
Presenter, "Blind Spots: Religion and Nationalism." Public Lecture, Ambrose Library, October 2009. (Podcast and Audio/Video files available above)
Presenter, "Interfaith Discussion" on Canadian Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Christian challenges in navigating the faith-politics interface, Manning Centre for Building Democracy, Ottawa, March 2009.
Presenter, "Church and State in a Conflict and Post-Conflict Situation," Paper presented at the Faculte de Theologie Evangelique de Boma (FACTEB), Boma, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 2008.
Presenter, "Historical Approaches to the Faith-Political Interface." Paper presented at the Manning Centre for Building Democracy Seminar, Navigating the Faith-Political Interface, Vancouver, November 2006, and Toronto, May 2007.

Curriculum Vitae (Resume)

For a full list of my teaching, research, and other activities, see my current c.v. (April 2010).

Ambrose History

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