It was back in the 1930s that young British woman by the name of Amy Buller walked on the stage during the rise of the National Socialist movement in Germany. Connected to the likes of the saintly William Temple and pursuing her studies in German, she chronicled the rise of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler. Such was her reach that she actually organized delegations of intellectuals and leaders from England to visit Germany and have face-to-face conversations with those she claimed were forming an alternate religion. With Hitler proclaiming the future new charmed era for Germany with him as its messiah Buller was alarmed how impressionable the needy people and especially young people were. This led to the publication of her provocative book, Darkness over Germany.
On May 16 the first English edition since 1945 was launched at a forum in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. It is a pregnant moment to revisit Buller’s writing and its insights. With radical nationalism and forms of facism on the rise throughout the world it is important to heed parallel alarms from another time. Perhaps that is why this edition is subtitled A warning from History.
We can only hope that attentive and courageous souls today will know and name facism when they see it, and especially the way it coopts religion in its service. As in the rise of facism during the Nazi atrocity, religious people today often fall into supporting and even endorsing false regimes that represent the opposite of the way of Jesus. It is disastrous for their souls, of course, but even more so for the world.
vitalwholeness 