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A pioneering exploration of the origins of German Christian Democracy in the context of 19th- and 20th-century politics and religion
"The author examines responses within the international Catholic community to the annexation and rule of East Timor by Indonesia from 1975 - 1999. Theoretically the Catholic Church is committed to prioritise the needs of the poorest and weakest members of the human family but the evidence put forward here reveals that there were significant shortcomings in its reaction to the plight of the East Timorese. Yet the Church also played a crucial role in their eventual achievement of independent nationhood. This study scrutinises the disposition of the Catholic community in several countries closely involved in the issue of East Timor - Indonesia, Portugal, Australia, Japan, Britain, the United States - and of the Vatican, and calls upon the Church to live up to its own social doctrine. Bishop Carlos Belo, Apostolic Administrator (emeritus) of the Diocese of Dili, East Timor, comments in an 'Afterword' to the book: 'This excellent study carries concrete lessons for the global community as we face the many challenges of the new millennium. In essence, how can we best help our brothers and sisters who often suffer in silence? This book helps to answer that question'. "
Shaken by military defeat and economic depression after War World I, Germans sought to restore their nation's dignity and power. In this context the National Socialist Party, with its promise of a revivified Germany, drew supporters. Among the most zealous were a number of Catholic clergymen known as "brown priests" who volunteered as Nazi propagandists. In this insightful study, Spicer unearths a dark subchapter in Roman Catholic history, introduces the principal clergymen who participated in the Nazi movement, examines their motives, details their advocacy of National Socialism, and explores the consequences of their political activism. Some brown priests, particularly war veterans, advoca...
Remembering the dead is a topic which connects various cultures and traditions. The reception of the African tradition of ancestorship is a theological enrichment in the ecumenical discussions all over the world. In our time, the exchange of gifts plays a great role in promoting unity of the Churches. Especially the concepts of African theology with the incomparable special position of Jesus Christ as "proto ancestor" are important for the interconfessional dialogues. The veneration of the ancestors in Africa can be a help to begin ecumenical discussions in this regional context on the question of the veneration of the saints. According to African tradition the ancestors also have influence on the process of purification. Therefore, the veneration of the ancestors contributes to providing answers to the ecumenical controversies about the understanding of the eschatological purification. Sentus Francis Dikwe SDS, born in 1980 in Morogoro, Tanzania, ordained priest of the Salvatorian Congregation. He attained doctorate in theology 2020 in Munster, Germany.
A major new biography of the iconic Austrian empress that challenges the many myths about her life and rule Maria Theresa (1717–1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of diverse ethnicities and languages, beset on all sides by enemies and rivals. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides the definitive biography of Maria Theresa, situating this exceptional empress within her time while dispelling the myths surrounding her. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Stollberg-Rilinger examines all facets of eighteenth-century society, from piety and patronage to sexuality and childc...
The author discusses how religious groups, especially Jews, Mormons and Jesuits, were labeled as foreign and constructed as political, moral and national threats in Scandinavia in different periods between c. 1790 and 1960. Key questions are who articulated such opinions, how was the threat depicted, and to what extent did it influence state policies towards these groups. A special focus is given to Norway, because the Constitution of 1814 included a ban against Jews (repelled in 1851) and Jesuits (repelled in 1956), and because Mormons were denied the status of a legal religion until freedom of religion was codified in the Constitution in 1964. The author emphasizes how the construction of ...
This volume looks at how religious identity and symbolic ethnicity influence migration. Religion – Christianity – was an important factor in European transatlantic migrations; religion – Islam – is a major issue in the immigration debate in “post-secular” Germany (and Europe) today. Essays focus on German missionaries and their efforts in the eighteenth century to establish new communal forms of living with Native Americans as religious encounters. In a comparative fashion, Islamic transnational migration into Germany in the twenty-first century is explored in a second group of essays that look at Muslim populations in Germany. They provide an insight into the ongoing discussions in Germany about modern migration and the role of religion. This volume is of interest to all who are engaged in issues of historical and contemporary migration, in Cultural and German Studies.
The role of migration for Christianity as a world religion during the last two centuries has drawn considerable attention from scholars in different fields. The main issue this book seeks to address is the question whether and to what extent migration and diaspora formation should be considered as elements of a new historiography of global Christianity, including the reflection upon earlier epochs. By focusing on migration and diaspora, the emerging map of Christianity will include the dimension of movement and interaction between actors in different regions, providing a more comprehensive ‘map of agency’ of individuals and groups previously regarded as passive. Furthermore, local histories will become parts of a broader picture and historiography might correlate both local and transregional perspectives in a balanced manner. Behind this approach lies the desire to broaden the perspective of Ecclesiastical History – and religious history in general – in a more systematic manner by questioning the traditional criteria of selection. This might help us to recover previously lost actors and forgotten dynamics.
In 2020, the Vatican opened its archives for the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958), the pope that led the Catholic Church during WWII, the Holocaust, and the beginning of the Cold War. The Global Pontificate of Pius XII brings together historians who were among the first to consult the previously unseen Vatican materials. These long-awaited records allow for an expansion of the current historiography beyond the pope’s biography. Methodologically, the volume works to transcend the rigidity of religious history and engage with new approaches in global, transnational, and postcolonial history to re-introduce questions surrounding religion into modern post-war historiography.
A volume exploring the nationalization of ethnic German youth in interwar and World War II Yugoslavia, focusing on the ways in which political, ecclesiastical, cultural, and military agents from Germany colluded with local nationalist activists to inculcate Yugoslavia's ethnic Germans with divergent notions of "Germanness".