Letter from the Editors: March 2015

Contemporary Church History Quarterly

Volume 21, Number 1 (March 2015)

Letter from the Editors (March 2015)

By Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University

Dear Friends,

Our latest issue of Contemporary Church History Quarterly is among the most diverse we have produced in quite some time. In it we review and report on research on the history of Christianity from right across Europe.

Church of Our Lady before Týn, Prague

Dirk Schuster leads off with a review of Hans-Joachim Döring and Michael Haspel’s study of two very different German churchmen: Lothar Kreyssig, the Confessing Church opponent of euthanasia, and Walter Grundmann, the German Christian advocate for a dejudaized German Christianity. John Conway follows that with a review article on two works relating to the Vatican’s response to the Nazi persecution of Jews: Susan Zuccotti’s book on the French Père Marie-Benoît, rescuer of Jews, and Paul O’Shea’s treatment of Eugenio Pacelli/Pope Pius XII’s Jewish politics. Lauren Faulkner Rossi assesses Rebecca Ayako Bennette’s book on Catholics in Wilhelmine Germany, while Stephanie Corazza examines Caroline Moorehead’s book on Le Chambon, France, and the rescue of Jews. Finally, John Conway reviews James Mace Ward’s study of the Slovak priest and politician Jozef Tiso, while Stacy Hushion surveys the latest volume in the fine Lessons and Legacies series of articles arising out of the biennial conference of the same name.

Two notes takes further afield. Kyle Jantzen summarizes the contents of the latest issue of Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte/Contemporary Church History, which explores the relationship between religion and national identity throughout Scandinavia and northern Europe, while Robert P. Ericksen summarizes the recent conference, “Resistance Revisited and Re-questioned: Church and Society in Scandinavia and Europe,” sponsored by the same journal. Finally, we invite you to peruse a call for papers for an interesting conference commemorating James Parkes, who promoted positive relationship between Jews and non-Jews throughout his long career in the twentieth century.

As ever, we invite your feedback on the reviews and other notes and notices we publish, and as both Passover and Easter approach, we wish you a blessed holiday season, in the truest sense of the word.

On behalf of the other editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University