[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Mr. Ratcliffe's letter of your issue of June 7th emphasizes a remarkable truth. Religious opinion in this country does not seem to realize the danger of the New Paganism in Germany. It is obviously easier to appreciate the gross untruth which vitiates the theory and practice of Russian Communism. I ant convinced that there is much truth in Bolshevism— its denunciation of degenerate pseudo-Christianity " adapted to the interests of bourgeois society," its efforts to organize economic society to prevent exploitation, its belief that politics should represent a complete philosophy of life. But its untruth is glaring. Humanism made God in the image of Man. Bolshevism goes further and strips Man of any individual value. Both God and Man are denied in the name of the new divinity, Social Collectivity. Neither God nor Man exist, only Class. Clearly, Communism in Russia is a religion—social idolatry pursued with all the fervour and, if one may use the word, paraphernalia of religion.
With the reiterated utterances of Nazi authority, it must now be clear to the unbiassed and thoughtful that the object of Nazi policy is similar, the -setting up of a new religion. The Name of the Almighty is preserved, and indeed invoked, man's individuality is ostensibly saved in rights of Property, but the Concentration Camp threatens those who do not worship at the shrine of Nationalism run riot. I am afraid the British are satisfied with the three mystic words, God, Nation, Property on the Nazi programme, and do not bother, or consider it their business, to find out what these mean in Nazi mouths. German Paganism is a more subtle and less blatant form of idolatry, but it is none the less anti-Christian and therefore deserving of something more than protest.
It is the Christian religion in its " theandric " integrity— man deriving his supreme dignity from his creation by God— which alone can oppose these new Paganisms. Christians must not be wedded to Capitalism or Property, or any other organization of society which produces social injustice, if they are to be free to bring in the age of justice, truth and freedom which these new Paganisms, in terrible revolt from pseudo-Christianity, seek to introduce.—Yours faithfully,
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