THE WORSHIP OF GERMANIA [To the EditOr Of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sta,—Sir Arnold Wilson disputes the Archbishop of York's , .
statement that " the Germans will worship Germania," and mointains that the predominant German view Lk that God still speaks dirOugh the mouths and by the example 'of men who arise frOM time to time to give fresh life to a nation, which—he believes=is thoroujihly compatible with Christianity, as the opening words of the Epistle to the Hebrews show.
He is .probably right in saying that this view is held by a large number of Germans who are Christians, both Catholic and Protestant. But they would certainly point out that the prophets to whom the author of "Hebrews " referred were shown. to. be true prophets because they did not flatter, but rebuked, national pride—and got stoned or crucified for their pains.:
Still more emphatically would they point out that they are confronted by exactly the claim that the Archbishop of York
refers to. Herr Baldur von Schirach, the master and moulder of the Hitlerjugend, has said " Germany is our Religion," and for that reason has crushed the Christian Youth organisations like the Biindische jugend and the Christliche Pfadfinderschaft.
Herr Hauer, the talented leader of the " Germanic Faith Movement," says that it " is an eruption from the biological and spiritual depths of the German nation . . . as old as the Nordic soul . . and diametrically opposed to Christian credalism with its Oriental bondage to dogma." Many in Germany are now disclaiming the title Evangelical and are inscribed as " God-believers " in the census returns. Their creed has been thus expressed : " I believe in the German Mother, who bore me. I believe in the German peasant, who breaks the clod. I believe in the German workman who makes things for the Folk. I believe in the dead, who gave their lives for their Folk. For my God is my Folk. I believe in Ger- many."
Is not Karl Heim, the Tubingen professor right, when he says that Hauer has done the Christian Church a service by showing that the Gcrman nation must choose between a religion of faith in the divine element in man's inner nature and the religion of faith in Jesus Christ ?
Those of us who are not Germans may join in this gratitude because before us too there lies the same choice—between the glorification of man and the acceptance of the Holy and Loving Will of God.—Yours The Deanery, Chichester. A. S. DUNCAN-JONES.
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