Church

• Church and State

  • Nazism is dangerous because it is an extension of human ideas to justify their use of power over others
  • no human decision can be absolutely right or wrong
  • in extreme situations we can do nothing but act out of despair, but in faith and hope
  • the most important question for a Christian was, 'what is the will of God?' not simply 'how can I do/be good?'
• Church as community

  • the church needed to understand that the world is religionless and work within that context

  'religionless' -

  • beyond superstitions about religion as rationalist
  • to lift itself beyond both its own past and current challenges
  • needing to get rid of 'rusty swords', ethics needs to be reinterpreted and moved forward
• The Confessing Church

  • 1934 - The confessing church met at Barmen, to produce the Barmen Declaration, by Karl Barth

  The Barmen Declaration - core beliefs:

  • Jesus is the only true leader and only way to God
  • Christians must not follow any teaching that does not come from the revelation of Jesus
  • other ideologies do not have authority over a person's life