Category Archives: Letters from the Editors

Letter from the Editors: December 2012

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Contemporary Church History Quarterly

Volume 18, Number 4 (December 2012)

Letter from the Editors: December 2012

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to relaunch our new-look journal this month, with a new WordPress platform and a new name: Contemporary Church History Quarterly. Both these changes come as a response to new developments in Internet technology, which have made possible this much more user-friendly format with several new features:

  • Complete Archive: all Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletters (the monthly e-mail newsletters from John S. Conway) from 1995 to 2009, all issues of the ACCH Quarterly (March 2010 to September 2012) and all issues of the Contemporary Church History Quarterly (December 2012 onward) are available at this site. Just click on the “Archive” link at the top of the page to find the full list of back issues.
  • Fully Searchable: all content from Contemporary Church History Quarterly (and its predecessor publications) is searchable both through the search engine on the right side of the page and through any Internet search engine (Google, Bing, etc.). All recent articles are also tagged, in order to optimize this searchability. Our previous web platform was not particularly searchable, and so we’re delighted that more readers than ever will find their way to our reviews, articles, news and notes about modern German and European church history.
  • Read New Issues in a Single File: Some of our users have asked if we could provide new issues of the Contemporary Church History Quarterly as a single file they could read in one sitting, or perhaps print out for themselves. We have incorporated this feature into our new site–just click on “Download Journal” at the top of the page to go to a list of recent issues, each of which appears as a single pdf file.

In our quest to make the journal more user-friendly and easier to find on the Internet, we’ve also changed our name. Contemporary Church History Quarterly clearly describes what we do, and we think that will encourage those who find us through web searches to become regular readers. Subscribing is free, and instructions on how to do so are always visible on the bottom right hand side of the page.

I (Kyle Jantzen) would be remiss if I did not thank my colleagues Steve Morris, Mark Thompson, and Spenser Jones in the IT department at Ambrose University College for a great deal of technical help in the transition to our WordPress platform.

A wayside cross by a vineyard near Rüdesheim am Rhein, Hesse, symbolizing the protection of Jesus over the produce of the land.

The technical changes to our journal are matched by some exciting new developments on the editorial board. This month, we welcome two new editors to Contemporary Church History. Dr. Lauren N. Faulkner is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Her research centres on German Catholic clergy in World War Two. Dr. Kevin P. Spicer, C. S. C., is James J. Kenneally Distinguished Professor of History at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. His research revolves around Catholic clergy in the Third Reich, as well as Christian antisemitism and Christian-Jewish relations. Drs. Faulkner and Spicer join the rest of our fine editorial board: Dr. Victoria J. Barnett, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA; Dr. Doris Bergen, University of Toronto, Canada; Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA; Dr. Andrew Chandler, University of Chichester, UK; Dr. John S. Conway, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada; Dr. Robert P. Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University, WA, USA; Dr. Manfred Gailus, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Bowling Green State University, OH, USA; Dr. Matthew D. Hockenos, Skidmore College, NY, USA; Dr. Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College, AB, Canada (Managing Editor); Dr. Christopher J. Probst, Saint Louis University, MO, USA; Dr. Mark Edward Ruff, Saint Louis University, MO, USA; Dr. Steven Schroeder, University of the Fraser Valley, BC, Canada; and Dr. Heath Spencer, Seattle University, WA, USA.

As ever, we offer an interesting array of reviews and notes this issue, on Pope Pius XII, Bishop George Bell, Jewish Christians, German Free Churches, Religion in East Germany, and–roaming a little further afield–missionary work in the Middle East. We profile the research of a young Australian scholar, report on three academic conferences, and note a new journal issue devoted to the theme of German expellees after the Second World War.

On behalf of my editorial colleagues, let me wish you a blessed Christmas season and much joy over the holidays,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College.

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Letter from the Editors: September 2012

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2012

Letter from the Editors: September 2012

 

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to present you with this new issue of the ACCH Quarterly.   In this issue, we cover much ground – thematically, temporally and geographically.

With respect to Germany, John Conway reviews both a collection of essays about the Christianity of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and what it may offer in terms of both politics and theology and an edited collection on völkisch religious movements in Germany during the Nazi era.  Lauren Falkner, a welcome new addition to the editorial team, reviews Sascha Hinkel’s examination of the church politics of the influential and controversial Adolf Cardinal Bertram during the Kaissereich and the Weimar Republic.  My contribution is a review of Hansjörg Buss’s fine study of the Lübeck Protestant church’s approach to Jews and Judaism from 1918 to 1950.

Covering a wider reach, both geographically and thematically, we have contributions about relations between the Church of England and the Russian Orthodox Church during the Second World War (John Conway), important developments in European and global Christianity during the twentieth century (Heath Spencer), and the resurgence of religion as it relates to global politics (Steve Schroeder).

Also included are several conference and seminar reports, including a Bonhoeffer conference in Sweden (Keith Clements), a seminar on the complicity of churches in the Holocaust (Lauren Falkner), and a conference on the memorialization of the Church Struggle in contemporary Berlin (Diana Jane Beech).

We hope that these and other contributions to the journal will continue to promote a deeper understanding of contemporary church history.

On behalf of all the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Christopher Probst, Saint Louis University

Table of Contents

From the Editors

Letter from the Editors: September 2012 – Christopher Probst

Announcement: Important Changes to the ACCH Quarterly – Kyle Jantzen

Reviews

Review of Florian Schmitz and Christiane Tietz, eds., Dietrich Bonhoeffers Christentum. Festschrift für Christian Gremmels – John S. Conway

Review of Uwe Puschner and Clemens Vollnhals, eds., Die völkisch-religiöse Bewegung im Nationalsozialismus. Ein Beziehungs- und Konfliktgeschichte – John S. Conway

Review of Hansjörg Buss, “Entjudete” Kirche: Die Lübecker Landeskirche zwischen christlichem Antijudaismus und völkischem Antisemitismus (1918-1950) – Christopher Probst

Review of Sascha Hinkel, Adolf Kardinal Bertram. Kirchenpolitik im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik – Lauren N. Faulkner

Review of Hanna-Maija Ketola, Relations between the Church of England and the Russian Orthodox Church during the Second World War, 1941-1945 – John S. Conway

Review of Katharina Kunter and Jens Holger Schjørring, eds., Europäisches und Globales Christentum/European and Global Christianity: Herausforderungen und Transformationen im 20. Jahrhundert/Challenges and Transformations in the 20th Century – Heath Spencer

Review of Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, Timothy Samuel Shah, God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics – Steven Schroeder

News and Notices

Seminar Report: Annual Seminar for Seminary and Religious Faculty, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., June 18-22, 2012 – Lauren N. Faulkner

Conference Abstract: “Confessions of a Protestant Past: The Memorialisation of the Kirchenkampf in Contemporary Berlin” – Diana Jane Beech

Conference Report: XI International Bonhoeffer Congress, Sigtuna, Sweden, June 27-July 1, 2012 – Keith Clements

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Announcement: Important Changes to the ACCH Quarterly

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2012

Announcement: Important Changes to the ACCH Quarterly

Dear Friends,

Over the past two years, we have made significant changes to the ACCH Quarterly, which grew out of the deep roots of John Conway’s “Association of Contemporary Church Historians” monthly e-mail newsletter. For fifteen years, John wrote reviews and passed along timely news concerning contemporary German and European church history. At the end of 2009, a group of John’s friends and colleagues in the field joined him to form an editorial board and began issuing his newsletter as a quarterly journal called the ACCH Quarterly. Our transition to a new web-based format, using the Open Journal System, was made possible thanks to the technical support of staff at Ambrose University College, Calgary.

More recently, however, it has become clear to us that more changes are necessary. Increasingly, academic researchers are recognizing the potential of the technology and format of social networking as an outlet for their scholarly work. Students, academics, and the broader public now regularly turn to search engines and online networks to access new research in history, theology, and many other fields of study. Neither our current journal name nor our existing online platform make effective use of the search engines that now give order to the Internet. Additionally, we have found that our journal website and “subscription” (i.e. sign-up) process are not as user-friendly as we would like them to be. Most problematically, we are currently unable to host all of our past issues in one place online.

For these reasons, we are excited to announce that, beginning this fall, we will be moving to a new WordPress platform for our journal and publishing future issues of our quarterly under a clearer, more concise name—Contemporary Church History—one that captures the original intent of John Conway’s newsletter.

By the end of September, you will receive an e-mail from us, formally announcing the new name and directing you to the journal’s new website. There you will find a livelier, more interactive site, with all the archives (going back to the beginning of John’s newsletter) available in a fully searchable form. We think this will give our work new life, not only for you our regular readers, but also for others interested in contemporary German and European church history, but who haven’t found us yet on the Internet.

On behalf of all the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

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Letter from the Editors: June 2012

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 2, June 2012

Letter from the Editors: June 2012.

Dear Friends,

Once again we are pleased to present you with a new issue of the ACCH Quarterly. As is so often the case, our attention returns to two prominent themes in modern German church history: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and more broadly, the Confessing Church) and the Holocaust.

On the former theme, John Conway reviews the newest (and final) volume of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition, which considers Bonhoeffer’s work in theological education during the later 1930s. Alongside this, we have included Matthew Hockenos’ interesting reflection on Confessing Church leader Martin Niemöller’s relationship with post-war America, and Manfred Gailus’ memorial address celebrating the life and death of Friedrich Weissler, the first member of the Confessing Church to have been murdered by the National Socialist regime in the course of its campaign against the German churches. We hope to bring you further reflections of this sort in the future, as we seek to broaden the ways in which the ACCH Quarterly interacts with the history of German and European church history over the past century.

The second theme – the relationship of the Christian churches to the Holocaust – is taken up by Victoria Barnett, who reviews two monographs on the subject of the complicity of the churches and other institutions in the Holocaust. This subject also appears in a review of the conference “Betrayal of the Humanities.” John Conway reviews Israeli politician Avraham Burg’s meditation on the legacy of the Holocaust in Israel, while Matthew Hockenos reports from the Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, which took place recently in Rochester, NY.

We believe that these and other contributions to the journal contribute to the ongoing historical, theological, and moral dialogue about the relationship between church and state and the responsibilities of Christians in times of crisis.

On behalf of all the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

Table of Contents

From the Editors

Letter from the Editors – Kyle Jantzen

Reviews

Review Article: Academic and Ecclesiastical Complicity in the Third Reich – Victoria J. Barnett

Review of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theological Education Underground: 1937-1940, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 15 – John S. Conway

Review of Avraham Burg, The Holocaust Is Over. We Must Rise From Its Ashes – John S. Conway

Review of Bryn Geffert, Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans: Diplomacy, Theology, and the Politics of Interwar Ecumenism – John S. Conway

Review of Mark Jantzen, Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772-1880 – Robert Beachy

Articles

Conference Paper: Matthew D. Hockenos, “Martin Niemöller in America, 1946-1947: ‘A Hero with Limitations’,” Plenary Session: Disputed Memories of Complicity and Righteousness, 42nd Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches – Matthew D. Hockenos

News and Notices

Conference Report: Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches – Matthew D. Hockenos

Memorial Speech: Friedrich Weissler (1891-1937) and the Confessing Church. Remembrance and Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Death of Friedrich Weissler – Manfred Gailus

Conference Report: Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich – Bernard Levinson, Melissa Kelley

Article Note: Manuel Borutta, “Genealogie der Säkularisierungstheorie. Zur Historisierung einer großen Erzählung der Moderne,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft – Heath Spencer

Call for Papers: Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations

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Letter from the Editors: March 2012

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 1, March 2012

Letter from the Editors: March 2012

Dear Friends,

This issue of our quarterly journal marks the beginning of its third year in its new format. As an independent venture, not funded by anybody, our aim is to provide you, our readers, with evaluations of new publications in the field of contemporary church history, i.e. from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Our aim is to do this as soon after publication as possible in order to assist your teaching and research. Our team of a dozen editors is drawn from both Europe and North America. Our mandate is to be both ecumenical and international. Because most of us began with an interest in Germany, the affairs of the German churches are frequently examined. But, at least in some sense, this is not fortuitous. For the German churches, Catholic, Protestant and Free Churches, provided striking examples of the perils and dangers for Christian witness during Germany’s subjection to two rival totalitarian systems in the past century. That is why we welcome our Berlin colleague, Manfred Gailus’ review of Martin Greschat’s survey of Protestantism in the Cold War, and Mark Ruff’s comment on the recent article by Olaf Blaschke on the Roman Catholic Kommission für Zeitgeschichte (Commission for Contemporary History). At the same time we ask you to note the positive steps taken to improve Catholic-Jewish relations, as recorded in the collected speeches of Pope John Paul II. We also bring you notice of some other aspects of Vatican diplomacy.

To be sure, looking back over the past century must give us pause for reflection. Vigorous debates, often reflected in the books here reviewed, still rage about how far the obvious and disturbing decline in Christianity’s support and credibility in Europe is the result of the churches’ failures to live up to their professed moral standards, or to the repressive features of many political regimes. It is our hope that this journal will continue to keep you posted about these and other controversies in the field of contemporary church history.

We offer you our best wishes for this Lenten season.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

John S. Conway, University of British Columbia

Mark Edward Ruff, St. Louis University

Robert P. Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University

Table of Contents

From the Editors

Letter from the Editors – John S. Conway

Reviews

Review of Manfred Gailus and Armin Nolzen, eds., Zerstrittene Volksgemeinschaft: Glaube, Konfession und Religion im Nationalsozialismus – Robert P. Ericksen

Review of Martin Greschat, Protestantismus im Kalten Krieg. Kirche, Politik und Gesellschaft im geteilten Deutschland 1945-1963 – Manfred Gailus

Review of Friedrich Winter, Friedrich Schauer (1891-1958): Seelsorger – Bekenner – Christ im Widerstand – John S. Conway

Review of S. J. D. Green, The Passing of Protestant England: Secularisation and Social Change, c.1920-1960 – Andrew Chandler

Review of Eugene J. Fisher and Leon Kleinicki, eds., The Saint for Shalom: How Pope John Paul II Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations: The Complete Texts 1979-2005 – John S. Conway

News and Notices

Article Note: New Research on Cold War Catholicism – William Doino

Book Note: A. D. McVay and L. Y. Luciuk, eds., The Holy See and the Holodomor. Documents from the Vatican Secret Archives on the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine – John S. Conway

Article Note: Olaf Blaschke, “Geschichtsdeutung und Vergangenheitspolitik. Die Kommission für Zeitgeschichte und das Netzwerk kirchenloyaler Katholizismusforscher, 1945-2000,” in Thomas Pittrof and Walter Schmitz, eds., Freie Anerkennung übergeschichtlicher Bindungen. Katholische Geschichtswahrnehmung im deutschsprachigen Raum des 20. Jahrhunderts – Mark Edward Ruff

Journal Issue Note: Crisis and Credibility in the Jewish-Christian World: Remembering Franklin Littel. The Fortieth Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches. Special issue of Journal of Ecumenical Studies 46, no. 4 (Fall 2011) – John S. Conway

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Letter from the Editors: December 2011

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2011

Letter from the Editors: December 2011

St. Martin’s Cathedral, the thousand-year-old seat of the Archbishop of Mainz.

It was exactly seventy years ago that the Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, took the striking step of writing a Christmas message to be broadcast by the BBC to his friends in the churches of Germany. For Bell, the message affirmed the unity of all Christians, however they may be divided by national borders and all the extremities of war. Naturally, such a message was acceptable to his own government: it offered its own, unequivocal condemnation of the evils of Nazism and marked a clear line between the ideology of the Hitler regime and the faith of Christians everywhere. Bell addressed some of his words directly to Martin Niemoeller.

In this December issue of the ACCH Quarterly, the broadcast of 24 December 1941 might also remind us that the issues which arose in Germany between 1933 and 1945 were at once the concern of observers, friends and allies abroad. They, too, became participants in the tragic history that unfolded in these years. And we might continue to reflect on the importance of pursuing our own international friendships in a world where creative intellectuals and men and women of faith still seek to make their voice heard in countries governed by dictatorship, repression and alienation.

On behalf of the editors,

Andrew Chandler, University of Chichester

 

Bishop George Bell of Chichester, BBC Christmas Message to Germany, 1941:

I AM talking to all Christians in Germany; for all Christians in Germany are oppressed. Many of you are my friends, and it is impossible to forget you now. I am a poor hand still at speaking German, and so I have asked a German pastor who is your friend and my friend, Pastor Hildebrandt of the Confessional Church, to read what I want to say.

This Christmas Eve I want to give you my heart-felt greetings as a fellow Christian. In the years before the war many of us worked together in closest fellowship on the tasks of the Church. My mind goes back to the meetings at the Wartburg of German and British scholars, with Archbishop Soderblom in the midst; and to another memorable conference at Eisenach a year or two later. Some of you have been my guests at the Palace in Chichester. Do you remember that walk, Doctor, in a rather muddy field one spring after­noon, with the Cathedral spire behind us, when we talked of the German Evangelical Church and its organisation? I thank God for the strong stand you have been taking ever since 1933 against those who are trying to destroy Christianity within the German nation. I think of some of you in your homes in Marburg, Hanover and Berlin, where you made me so welcome. I can picture you now, watching the Christmas tree, and thinking of the absent sons and daughters. Do you remember, old friend in Berlin, an evening party of Confessional Church leaders in your house four years ago, when we discussed the latest news of the German Church conflict? I can see your wife and daughter now, so courteously helping us all at the table. How vivid the talk was, and how friendly! Do you remember the young pastor saying, with such prophetic truth, that once a revolution had started like the Nazi revolution, its very logic compelled it to go where the extreme men drove it?

Well, the Nazi revolution has gone where the extreme men drove it, with a vengeance. The Nazi leaders have dealt sharper and sharper blows at the Christian Church. They have attacked everything for which Christianity stands in Germany. And the logic of their attack is compelling them now to try to destroy everything for which Christianity stands all over the earth.

Christmas means Christ and His rule of love. It brings good tidings of great joy, and speaks of peace and goodwill. Could anything be in greater contrast to the injustice and violence with which those who persecute the Evangelical Church and the Catholic Church would enslave all nations? It is good to remind one another on Christmas Eve that you and I have a bond as fellow Christians which all the anti­-Christian forces in the world are powerless to destroy.

I remember the sermon Pastor Niemöller preached on New Year’s Day, 1937, in Dahlem, only a few months before his imprisonment. He was very frank about the fight the Nazis were waging against faith in Jesus Christ. But he was full of encouragement. Christians, he said, are not to imagine that they are alone, a forlorn little group, facing certain ruin. ‘In the world nothing counts but what men can see.       But­ God’s Word decrees otherwise. God’s Word speaks plainly enough, even concerning very high personages. … It is truly not worth our while to hang our heads and to be afraid because the wicked spring as grass and the evildoers flourish as though their power were eternal. They spring as grass – yes, but, says God’s Word, only as grass, and they flourish-yes, says God’s Word, but only until they be ‘destroyed for ever.’

Ah, Martin Niemöller, my friend, I rejoice to hear your brave voice. I rejoice to hear your voice too, Bishop Wurm in Stuttgart, and yours, Bishop von Galen in Münster; and all the other voices, soft or loud, which swell the chorus of those who speak up for Christ and His Church in these days when wicked­ness walks the earth, and destroys freedom, and takes its ghastly toll of human life.

Believe me, fellow Christians in Germany, we under­stand you. You are not alone. Keep up your faith. Help to save your country’s soul by resisting the evil spirit by which it is now possessed. Your fellow Christians everywhere are by your side. Your struggle is our struggle. The days are dark, but Christmas brings salvation. Light will break through. Hold fast, never yield. Trust in the Power of God, and the Love of Christ.

24 December 1941

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Letter from the editors: September 2011

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 3, September 2011

Letter from the editors: September 2011

By Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the modern martyrs celebrated in stone at Westminster Abbey. Photo credit: “Saints and Martyrs” (http://saintsandmartyrs2010.blogspot.ca/2010/04/20th-century-martyrs-3.html)

This issue of the ACCH Quarterly is our most ambitious to date, surveying aspects of German ecclesiastical history and historical theology from the nineteenth century through the post-war reconstruction of the 1950s, as well as aspects of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century European missionary endeavours.

Amid these diverse offerings are three pieces on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose life and legacy continues to dominate the scholarship on modern German church history. John Conway reviews an interesting new biography … of a book: Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison. Victoria Barnett, long active in the editing and translation of Bonhoeffer literature, describes the forthcoming final volume in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition. As well, we have provided a conference schedule and other information about the upcoming conference celebrating the completion of that same Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition.

On behalf of the other editors, let me wish you a smooth entry into the fall season (and, for many of us, a new semester of study or teaching). As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or requests, please feel free to contact me at kjantzen@ambrose.edu.

 

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Letter from the editors: June 2011

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 2, June 2011

Letter from the editors: June 2011

By Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

Stained glass windows from the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt, Germany.

Our summer 2011 issue of the ACCH Quarterly deals almost exlusively with people and issues which are international in scope. We have reviews of two new books on Christians whose influence extended (or extends) far beyond Germany. The first is Wolfgang Sommer’s study of Lutheran leader Wilhelm Freiherr von Pechmann, whose antipathy to Bavarian church policy ultimately led to his departure from the Lutheran Church. The second is an edited volume of letters and writings from Franz Jaegerstaetter, an Austrian Catholic conscientious objector and martyr whose life and death was first made known widely throughout the English world several decades ago thanks to a biography by Gordon Zahn.

Alongside these reviews, two article notes examine the politics of the World Council of Churches and the relationship between the League of Nations and the WorldAlliancefor Promoting International Friendship through the Churches.

On behalf of my fellow editors, let me wish you all the best for a relaxing summer. If you have any suggestions for books we should review or issues we should comment on, please contact me at kjantzen@ambrose.edu.

 

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Letter from the editors: March 2011

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2011

Letter from the editors: March 2011

By Mark Edward Ruff, St. Louis University, and Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

Greetings from the editors, and welcome to the March issue of the ACCH Quarterly. It is a true pleasure to be able to bring you this spring issue. Its contents are drawn from the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, under whose umbrella the American Catholic Historical Association and the Conference Group for Central European History sponsored their annual gatherings.

The panels discussed in this issue were particularly germane to this year’s larger theme, “History, Society and the Sacred.”  Doris Bergen gives us a run-down of a panel entitled, “Christianity during the Era of Total War.” Two of the papers on this panel focused on Catholic military chaplains during the conflagrations which tore the European continent apart between 1914 and 1945. Mark Edward Ruff provides a synopsis of the panel, “German Catholics Negotiate National Socialism: Three Case Studies” which underscored the ambiguities and ambivalences of the relationship between church leaders in the Third Reich and the National Socialist movement.

This issue also features the repertoire of reviews to which you have long been accustomed.  Heath Spencer reviews Jeremy Cohen’s book, Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen. In a collective review of four books, John Conway takes on an equally massive subject – Christianity and Communism in East Germany. Robert Ericksen assesses a book written by a relative outsider to Holocaust studies, David Cymet’s History vs. Apologetics: The Holocaust, the Third Reich, and the Catholic Church, while John Conway reviews Antonia Leugers’ Jesuiten in Hitlers Wehrmacht. Kriegslegitimation und Kriegserfahrung.

It is also our pleasure to welcome Suzanne Brown-Fleming as a new member of the ACCH Quarterly editorial board.  Dr. Brown-Fleming is the director of Visiting Scholar Programs at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  She brings a wealth of experience not only in coordinating international scholarly programs on the Holocaust but also in carrying out research into the churches and the Holocaust. She is the author of The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Postwar Germany, which was published in 2006 by the University of Notre Dame Press. On a related note, it is with a mixture of sadness and gratitude that we announce the departure of Dr. Randall Bytwerk from the editorial board. For many years, Dr. Bytwerk faithfully archived the contents of John Conway’s monthly newsletter (forerunner to the ACCH Quarterly), which are still available at hisCalvinCollege website (http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/akz/). We would like to thank him for his service.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Mark Edward Ruff, St. Louis University

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

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Letter from the editors: December 2010

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 16, No. 4, December 2010

Letter from the editors: December 2010

The Berliner Dom, in the heart of the capital.

Greetings for the holiday season and welcome to the December 2010 issue of the ACCH Quarterly! The reviews, reports, and announcements here deal with topics close to many of us – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pius XI, the German churches under National Socialism – but they also extend into less familiar terrain – the Bruderhof,Russiain the 1920s,Palestinein the 1940s. Together they point to the fact that study of church history, and religious history more broadly, is booming.

It’s worth pausing to reflect on this development. Twenty, thirty years ago historians of religion in the modern world were a rarity. If religious themes were treated at major conferences it was in a small number of discrete sessions or in the context of pre-modern history. Programs of the 2010 meetings of the German Studies Association, the Historikertag, and Lessons and Legacies Conference on the Holocaust reveal a very different situation: numerous papers, panels, and special events dealing with religion, and integration of religious matters into broader discussions of all kinds. Indeed, the overarching theme for the 2011 annual meeting of the American Historical Association is “History, Society, and the Sacred.” The same trend is evident in other places, too: look at what is being published in top historical journals, at lists of dissertation topics, or at the areas of focus of historical institutes of various kinds. One of the busiest parts of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum these days is the Committee on Church Relations, headed by Victoria Barnett.

There are a number of possible explanations for this surge of interest in contemporary religious history. The rise of fundamentalisms, the events of September 11, and the wars inAfghanistanandIraqhave no doubt played a role. Spirituality in various forms – from the New Age movement to global Pentecostalism – has emerged powerfully in the late twentieth century. Academically, social and cultural history have become dominant modes of historical analysis. Leadership by key individuals has also been vital: Hartmut Lehmann, Jon Butler, Gerhard Besier, Annette Becker, Emilio Gentile, and others have published, organized, mentored, and inspired work on religion in areas often far beyond their immediate specializations. John Conway, the founding editor and still most prolific contributor to this periodical, merits particular recognition here. John, we hope it is gratifying to see many seeds you have planted and nurtured over the years grow and flourish, even in ways you might not have imagined.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Doris Bergen,UniversityofToronto

Andrew Chandler,UniversityofChichester

Manfred Gailus, Technische UniversitätBerlin

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Letter from the editors: September 2010

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2010

Letter from the editors: September 2010

By Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

The Marienkirche, near Alexanderplatz, Berlin, alongside the Fernsehturm.

We are pleased to offer our third issue of the ACCH Quarterly, successor publication to John S. Conway’s Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter. This issue, like so many of Dr. Conway’s newsletters over the years, is chiefly devoted reviewing recent literature on Christianity in modern German and European history, including the perennially popular subjects of Pope Pius XII and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As well, we are delighted to introduce our readers to a new scholar, Tina Alice Hansen of Oxford University, who presents an overview of her doctoral dissertation on the Church of England in the immediate post-war period.

Each issue of the ACCH Quarterly is compiled by three or more members of the editorial team, on a rotating basis. We welcome your suggestions for content or any other feedback you might have about the ACCH Quarterly. Please send these to Kyle Jantzen at kjantzen@ambrose.edu.

It is our sincere hope as editors that you enjoy the new e-journal format and content of the ACCH Quarterly. Over time, we plan to mount all of the old newsletters (volumes 1-15) on the new site. For now, you can still find old issues of the newsletter at Randall Bytwerk’s excellent website, available at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/akz/.

If you are affiliated with a university or college, we would encourage you to request that the ACCH Quarterly be added to your library’s electronic resources. Our ISSN number is 1923-1725, and your librarian will know how to add our journal to your library’s existing online resources.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

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Letter from the editors: June 2010

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 15, No. 2, June 2010

Letter from the editors: June 2010

By Kyle Jantzen

Statue of St. Boniface, Apostle of the Germans, in Mainz.

We are pleased to offer our second issue of the ACCH Quarterly, successor publication to John S. Conway’s Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter. In this issue, the emphasis is on German Catholic Christianity in the twentieth century, with reviews of two new books on the relationship between Catholicism and Nazism, a note about Vatican archival documents recently made available to scholars online, as well as a report from a recent conference on Eugenio Pacelli as the Vatican Nuncio in Germany. Other contributions consider Protestant antisemitism and smaller evangelical movements as well.

It is our sincere hope as editors that you enjoy the new e-journal format and content of the ACCH Quarterly. Over time, we plan to mount all of the old newsletters (volumes 1-15) on the new site. For now, you can still find old issues of the newsletter at Randall Bytwerk’s excellent website, available at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/akz/.

If you are affiliated with a university or college, we would encourage you to request that the ACCH Quarterly be added to your library’s electronic resources. Our ISSN number is 1923-1725, and your librarian will know how to add our journal to your library’s existing online resources.

Each issue of the ACCH Quarterly will be compiled by three or more members of the editorial team, on a rotating basis. We welcome your suggestions for content or any other feedback you might have about the new format. Please send these to Kyle Jantzen at kjantzen@ambrose.edu.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

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Letter from the editors: March 2010

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ACCH Quarterly Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2010

Letter from the editors: March 2010

By Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College

Wittenberg’s Castle Church, birthplace of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation.

It is with great excitement that we release the first issue of the ACCH Quarterly, which we hope will continue in the fine tradition established by its predecessor, the Association of Contemporary Church Historians Newsletter, issued faithfully via e-mail by Professor Emeritus John S. Conway for the past fifteen years.

The ACCH Quarterly is now overseen by the following international editorial board:

Victoria Barnett, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, USA

Doris Bergen, University of Toronto, Canada

Randall Bytwerk, Calvin College, MI, USA

Andrew Chandler, University of Chichester, UK

John S. Conway, University of  British Columbia, BC, Canada

Robert Ericksen, Pacific Lutheran University, WA, USA

Manfred Gailus, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

Beth Griech-Polelle, Bowling Green State University, OH, USA

Matthew Hockenos, Skidmore College, NY, USA

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College, AB, Canada (Managing Editor)

Christopher Probst, Howard Community College, MD, USA

Mark Ruff, St. Louis University, MO, USA

Steven Schroeder, University of the Fraser Valley, BC, Canada

Heath Spencer, Seattle University, WA, USA

A new name, publishing schedule, and editorial board are not the only changes you’ll notice. Perhaps the most obvious innovation is our new e-journal format, based on the Open Journal System software. Though it may take time to work out all the bugs, each quarter you’ll receive an e-mail notice from the ACCH Quarterly, complete with an Internet link to the journal website. There you’ll find the contents of the newest issue, complete with “pdf” links to each article to click on (on the right side of the page). Headings along the top take you to other information about the journal, including policies, contact information, and an archive of back issues. Over time, we hope to mount all of the old newsletters (volumes 1-15) on the new site. For now, you can still find old issues of the newsletter at Randall Bytwerk’s excellent website, available at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/akz/.

Each issue of the ACCH Quarterly will be compiled by three or more members of the editorial team, on a rotating basis. We welcome your suggestions for content or any other feedback you might have about the new format. Please send these to Kyle Jantzen at kjantzen@ambrose.edu.

On behalf of all of the ACCH Quarterly editors,

Kyle Jantzen, Ambrose University College and John S. Conway, University of British Columbia

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