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Theological work, whatever else it may be, is always a reflection on social transformations. Not only pastors but also theologians work with the sources of the Christian traditions in one hand and a newspaper in the other. But how are we to understand the relationship between social transformations and the continuously “compromised” development of Christian ideals, as these are measured by doctrinal formulations? And how might a more deeply sociological perspective on this relationship inform theological work? Matthew Ryan Robinson and Evan F. Kuehn approach this question, not by reconstructing a history of ideas, but rather by telling a story about the development of churches and theological institutions. They take the turbulent and dynamic ecclesiological situation of nineteenth-century Germany as a representative case, focusing on the sociological methodological orientation of Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ernst Troeltsch in the context of the rise of theological liberalism, the history of religions, and the German churches’ confrontation with social and political challenges. Robinson and Kuehn then connect this orientation with the sociology of religion of Hans Joas and Niklas Luhmann, arguing for a functional focus in theological research on what doctrines do rather than what the reality behind or in any particular doctrine is.
Analyzing the previously unexplored religious views of the Nazi elite, Richard Steigmann-Gall argues against the consensus that Nazism as a whole was either unrelated to Christianity or actively opposed to it. He demonstrates that many participants in the Nazi movement believed that the contours of their ideology were based on a Christian understanding of Germany's ills and their cure. A program usually regarded as secular in inspiration - the creation of a racialist 'people's community' embracing antisemitism, antiliberalism and anti-Marxism - was, for these Nazis, conceived in explicitly Christian terms. His examination centers on the concept of 'positive Christianity,' a religion espoused by many members of the party leadership. He also explores the struggle the 'positive Christians' waged with the party's paganists - those who rejected Christianity in toto as foreign and corrupting - and demonstrates that this was not just a conflict over religion, but over the very meaning of Nazi ideology itself.