The Confessing Church (German: Bekennende Kirche) was a Christian resistance movement in Nazi Germany. In 1933 the Gleichschaltung forced Protestant churches to merge into the Protestant Reich Church and support Nazi ideology. Opposition was forced to go "underground" to meet, and created the Confessing Church that September. In 1934 the Barmen declaration, primarily authored by Karl Barth with the input of other Confessing Church pastors and congregations, was ratified at the Barmen Synod through which it was re-affirmed that the German Church was not an "organ of the State" for the purpose of strengthening Nazi agendum but only subject to Christ and his mission. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      A Christian () is a person who... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The German word Gleichschaltung â’½ â’¾ (literally synchronising, synchronization) is used in a political sense to describe the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Protestant Reich Church was formed by Adolf Hitler in 1933, by merging 29 regional churches into one church. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Barmen declaration or The Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 is a statement of the Confessing Church, re-affirming the focus of the church on Nazism rather than on Christ. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Some of the leaders of the Confessing Church, such as Martin Niemöller were sent to concentration camps, and some died there, while Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sent to Tegel Prison where he was hanged. Christians who did not agree with the Nazis were left without leadership. The Confessing Church engaged in various forms of resistance, notably hiding Jews^[1] from the Nazi regime. The Confessing Church is a unique example of a crypto-Christian movement operating in a majority Christian country. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer [] (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. ... Christianity percentage by country, purple is highest, orange is lowest Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch... Crypto-Christianity commonly refers to the secret practice of the Christian religion, usually while attempting to camouflage it as another faith or observing the rituals of another religion publicly. ...

When the Nazis were consolidating their power in Germany during the 1930s, one of the areas that they exercised significant influence over was the German State Church. Various Lutheran pastors, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, decided to resist the encroaching Nazi influence. This underground resistance movement on behalf of German (Lutheran) pastors became known as the Confessing Church. Unfortunately, many leaders of this underground movement, including Bonhoeffer himself, were sent to concentration camps and later executed for their "treasonous" undertakings.

Even most members of the Confessing Church, however, were relatively cautious and strategic in their protests. A few urged more radical and risky action in the presence of genocide. Daniel Goldhagen in his book “Hitler's Willing Executioners,” describes Berlin Deaconess Marga Meusel as a Christian offering “perhaps the most impassioned, the bluntest, the most detailed and most damning of the protests against the silence of the Christian churches” because she went the furthest in speaking on behalf of the Jews. Meusel and two other leading women members of the Confessing Church in Berlin, Elisabeth Schmitz and Gertrud Staewen were members of the Berlin parish where Martin Niemöller served as Pastor. Her efforts to prod the church to speak out for the Jews were unsuccessful and Meusel and Bonhoeffer condemned the failure of the Confessing Church -- which was organized specifically in resistance to the Nazis -- to move beyond a very limited concern for their church and its Jewish converts to advocacy for all people and especially those suffering the most. Meusel responded to the Confessing Church's timid action in 1935 by saying: “Why does the church do nothing? Why does it allow unspeakable injustice to occur? ...What shall we one day answer to the question, where is thy brother Abel? The only answer that will be left to us, as well as to the Confessing Church, is the answer of Cain." ("Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9) Karl Barth also wrote in 1935: ‘For the millions that suffer unjustly, the Confessing Church does not yet have a heart.’ ^[2]

Widely regarded as one of the preeminent Christian theologians of the 20th century, Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship in 1937. This book can be seen as the cornerstone of the Confessing Church movement for it was written at a time when the German State Church was struggling over whether or not to pursue or resist the onslaught of the National Socialist (Nazi) movement. Bonhoeffer claimed that the times represented a true divine test, much like the story told by The Book of Job in the Old Testament. Many Germans considered Bonhoeffer to be poignantly accurate in his remarks concerning the peculiar epoch in German history. Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... For other uses, see Divinity (disambiguation) and Divine (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Note: Judaism commonly uses the term Tanakh to refer to its canon, which corresponds to the Protestant Old Testament. ... The title page to The Historians History of the World. ...

References

1. ^ Victoria J. Barnett, "Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Ecumenical Vision", The Christian Century (April 26, 1995), 454–7.
2. ^ Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Knopf. 1996 p.438

The Christian Century is a liberal Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

External links

• The Confessing Church at the Columbia Encyclopedia