Andrew Chandler’s British Christians and the Third Reich: Church, State, and the Judgement of Nations is a welcomed treatment of the British Christian response to the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Chandler seeks to demonstrate the significance of this response for the complex political landscape of the time. In doing so he not only attends to the role of british Churches in the political sphere, but also seeks to give due consideration to the ways in which the rise and fall of the Third Reich shaped and impacted british Christians. This fascinating dive into the relationship between british Churches and the Third Reich is supported by a robust scaffolding of primary source material, mostly archival, to substantiate the claims of this work (4).
Alongside establishing the purpose of the monograph, and the historiographical backdrop that calls for its contribution, Chandler begins this work by highlighting his methodological approach. Firstly, he takes a chronological approach (from 1933 to 1949) instead of a thematic approach. This best allows him to trace the changing attitudes and ideas of British Christians over this period. Secondly, the author takes a distinct approach to periodization. For example, the timespan of the Second World War (1939-45) has understandably become a commonplace delineation in the historical analysis of the first half of 20th century. However, Chandler argues that this interval is also, to some degree, artificial. This is important to note because it affects the way one considers the transformation of ideas over time. In one particular application of this approach, he contends that while historians have typically understood National Socialism to have ended in 1945 (along with the war itself), the spirit of National Socialism in fact continued into the post-war era, along with the lingering dew of the crisis it created. Thus, rather than marking the end of National Socialism, 1945 marked the reshaping of National Socialism and its relationship to international political discourse.
Additional peculiarities to this monograph, alongside Chandler’s methodological approach, include his expansion and complication of national categories and boundary lines. Category distinctions such as “domestic” and “foreign” are not as neat as one might assume, and Chandler seeks to outline a mutually constitutive understanding of such distinctions. National politics thus necessarily entails international politics. As well as the expansion and complication of national categories and boundary lines, the author also problematizes an assumption among some historians that religious life is somehow peripheral to that of the social and political realities of a given historical period. Rather, Chandler approaches his work from the premise that to study British Christians and their response to the Third Reich is indeed to exposit the political life of the nation.
This monograph is divided into six parts, with each part consisting of two to three chapters. Part 1 details the state of British Christianity in the years preceding the rise of the Third Reich. Part 2, spanning 1933–34, considers the emergence of the British Christian view of National Socialism as it developed amid the German national revolution. Part 3, covering 1935–37, explores the possible rapprochement of British political opinion with the German regime and the influence of British Christian resistance to this rapprochement. Part 4, encompassing 1938–39, details the diplomatic crisis generated by western appeasement of the expansionary program of the Nazi German government. Part 5, covering 1939–43, examines how the war era changed the material reality of British Christianity, and how such a change created the conditions for the emergence of new collaborations, associations, and ecumenical innovations. Part 6, spanning 1943–49, discusses the attention given to the questions of judgment and justice in view of the prospect of victory and its subsequent actualization.
One of the unique contributions of this monograph is the spotlight it places on ecumenical developments within the British Christian response to the Third Reich. In chapter 2, Chandler shows how the development of international ecumenism was already surfacing among British Christians. This development ranged from the establishment of The Student Christian Movement (SCM) and the World Student Christian Federation to the widened Christian publishing landscape that saw Christian intellectuals write for publishers and periodicals of other denominations. This nascent ecumenism saw significant advancement as British Christians responded to the National Socialism of Nazi Germany. Chandler writes that “National Socialism made individuals who might never otherwise have known each other into colleagues and allies” (391). This ecumenism was not limited to Christian denominations either. In response to the persecution of the Jewish people, the Council of Christians and Jews was created and “would work to counter religious and racial intolerance, and to promote mutual understanding, fellowship and cooperation” (311).
British Christians and the Third Reich is a well-researched monograph that makes exceptional use of archival sources (including that of the German Foreign Office collection) to paint a detailed picture of the British Christian response to the rise and fall of the Third Reich and thus substantiate the international dimension of British Christianity. Chandler makes a convincing case for loosening the boundary lines of our historiographical categories by showing how the British Christian response to Nazi Germany is not just a matter of religious historiography, but also of political historiography. Chandler’s work ought to be received as a consequential addition to political, religious, and modern British historical studies. This book will prove worthwhile to anyone interested in the intersection of religion and politics, national and international politics, and church and state relations during the first half of the 20th century.
Israel A. Kolade is on the theology faculty of Maranatha High School, Pasadena, Calif.
Israel A. Kolade
Date Of Review:
November 30, 2023