A METHOD WITH GERMANY
By CANON ROGER LLOYD
N wartime we are all a little shamefaced in our keeping of I Christmas. The contrasts cannot be escaped and they are disconcerting. So we do our best not to spoil it all for the children, and restrain our minds from too much comparing of Christmas Eve in Bethlehem in A.D. i with Christmas Eve in Poland in A.D. 1943. But between the traditional Christmas story of the. Nativity and the shape of things to come in Modern Germany there is a direct and important connexion—and that not primarily on the spiritual so much as on the historical and political planes. To grasp this connexion is to be guided into a new and creative line of thought about the problem of post-war Germany.
To those who accept the Christian interpretation of the early chapters of St. Luke, the story of the Nativity is the illustration of one of the leading themes of all history ; while to those who do not accept it, the story St. Luke tells is still an illustration of the same theme. In this matter of the enunciation of universal historical themes, the prince of all the expositors is Professor Arnold Toynbee. His monumental A Study of History has scores of pages in volume five which are devoted to showing that when a society passes through a phase of agonising challenge, there will always appear within it two contrasted forms of reaction against it. To the first he gives the name of Violent, and to the second the name of the Gentle Internal Proletariat. (The unwary should be warned that in Dr. Toynbee's terminology, Proletariat has nothing whatever to do with Working Class. He uses the word in a quite different sense from Marx, and defines it thus : " A social element or group which in some way is ' in ' but not of' any given society at any given stage of such a society's history.") Dr. Toynbee assembles evidence from almost every age of every continent to support the universality of this historic trend. I have never heard of anyone who ventured to contradict him, and indeed it can be taken as virtually an inescapable law of history that a social challenge of an agonising kind will be followed by these two forms of reaction.
The story of the Nativity is a very clear example of the working of this law. The social challenge is the occupation of Palestine by Rome, which took place in 63 s.c. For a nation like the Jews it was a challenge to their fanatical racial pride, and therefore doubly agonising. The Violent Internal Proletariat inevitably appears in the party of the Zealots ; and true to form, precipitates revolution, war, and disaster. The tragic sequence ends with the siege and the fall of Jerusalem. The Gentle Internal Proletariat is also present, but, as always, has to be looked for. It consists of the little circle of whom St. Luke writes, and which is shown as being dimly aware of a great destiny but as doing nothing in particular about it, until the angelic summons comes to Mary. Her reply, " Behold, the handmaid of the Lord : be it unto me according to thy will," expresses exactly the vital spirit of every Gentle Internal Proletariat. It is the destiny of the Violent reaction to stay within the society concerned, Working upon it from within to make revolution and war. It is the tendency of the Gentle reaction to secede from the society, and to create either new religions or reformS in old ones.
The development ,of Germany after the Weimar Republic again illustrates the theme. There is social agony—defeat, inflation, unemployment. The Nazis are the violent reactionaries, while Karl
Barth, who significantly secedes to Geneva, and whose thought influences all Christendom, might be said to constitute the gentle reaction, expressing itself, as always, primarily in the things of the spirit. It is as certain as anything on earth can be that pre- sently this cycle will begin to revolve once more in Gerinany, as indeed in Italy and Japan, and, for - that matter, in England, too. But the central problem of statesmanship is post-war Germany.
In whatever state final defeat reveals Germany to be, and however greatly the miseries of that state may be mitigated by Allied mercy, or by unexpectedly swift success in the general reconstruction of Europe, it is certain that the whole society of the German people must pass through many agonising years. That they have in effect punished themselves, -that their sufferings will be just, will not make their fate one bit less agonising for them. If they realise their blame, it may even make the pain sharper. When, at last, the processes of reconstruction have made of the new Germany an outwardly stable and ordered society (it will probably take ten years to do even that), then, because the challenge of pain will still be present, there will duly arise a Violent Internal Proletariat. The future peace of the world will then depend updn two factors, the recognition of the reaction in its first inchoate stages as the inevitable challenge to be met, and the inability of these reactionaries to put their hands on or to make the weapons of war. In all likelihood the new Violent Internal Proletariat will not look much like a new edition of the Nazis, nor a resurrection of the German General Staff. That would make it too easy. Much more probably, it will be an outburst of anarchism, as a Spanish intellectual would understand that word. But whatever form it takes, it will infallibly &nd us all in a new war if it is allowed to dominate Germany ; and the Germans themselves will almost certainly welcome it. The maintenance of peace will then depend upon its swift and ruthless repression, presumably by whatever may be the armed force of organised peace.
Just as certainly they will not at first welcome the Gentle Internal Proletariat when it arises. It is not possible even to guess what form this will take ; but it is absolutely certain that it will come. But there are two invariable tendencies of this kind of reaction, and these may make it recognisable. Gentle Internal Proletariats are always moved by the religious impulse, and in one way or another they always tend to secede from the society which gives them birth, either by shutting themselves in monasteries or by founding new societies in deserts, or colonies in virgin countries. Much will depend upon the prompt recognition of this development in Germany as soon as it arises, and then upon the devising of ways and means to prevent it from seceding from the Fatherland. It is this movement which will have in its keeping the real salve to cure the German disease. Our statesmanship ought to be directed to fostering its growth through the dreadful years which are coming, and then, when at last it is born, to keeping it firmly at home to do its work where it is most needed.
But how? While no detailed answer could possibly be given, the outlines of a long-term policy are already to be seen. Gentle Internal Proletariats are a fruit of the religious impulse, and we know a good deal of what sort of soil it is in which religion most flourishes. We should begin on the day the last shot is fired to create that soil in Germany. This will involve a supervision of the whole German educational system, but it will also involve the immediate and sus- tained effort to create in Germany a healthy and a satisfying social system. Above all, everything possible must be done to nourish and to strengthen all the Christian Churches in Germany ; and not the least of these latter measures would be the swift resumption of inter- course between the Christians of Europe and those of Germany. Because that will be an attempt to create fellowship in the name of Christ, not in the name of humanity, there is every chance that it could happen. Thus it might happen that the Gentle would precede the Violent Proletariat ; and if it found at home a possible field of self-expression, it would probably stay at home to do its work where it is needed. The Gentle reaction secedes because the Violent reaction is making such a horrible noise that no one will listen to the still, small voice.
Previous page
