Many Britains had distinct religious or theological interpretations of World War II. They viewed Fascism, especially the German National Socialism, as a form of modern paganism, a repulsive worship of Leader, Race, and State--a form of idolatry. However, for the most part, British clerics did not defend the war as a simple matter of Christian Britain versus Pagan Germany, because they saw only too well the pagan elements in British culture. Instead, the clergy defended the war as a defense of Christian civilization, a particular religious culture that had grown up under the aegis of the Christian faith.

Fascism had, in the opinion of many, family similarities to Liberal Humanism. Nazism was abusing the Scripture because everyone had allowed a liberal hermeneutic to slip into their thinking theologically. Naturally, the clerics view of the war as just meant that pacifism was wrong-headed, but they refused to demonize pacifists or to hound them into arrest. The clergymen did maintain that Liberal Humanism issued logically in pacifism and pacifism had weakened the national will, allowing it to make shameful concessions to the Fascist dictators throughout the 1930s. This study will also help explain the surprising Labor Party victory in the summer of 1945.

"God, Germany, and Britain in the Great War" compares the patriotic preaching of two major combatants in World War II--Germany and Great Britain. The core material for the study is the war sermons of the British and German clergy of 1914-1918, but the author also employs numerous speeches, books, addresses, pamphlets, and journal articles to support his arguments. As Hoover demonstrates, the Protestant churchmen played a significant role in the First World War as religion became a key ingredient in the war fever experienced on both sides. Religious historians as well as historians of World War I will find Hoover's study both enlightening and provocative reading.

Hoover explores the attacks made by each nation's clergy on the enemy and analyzes the public's responses to these attacks. Based on his close readings of the sermons, Hoover shows that ministers from each nation repeatedly stressed the national flaws of the opponent, predicting that these flaws would have to be eradicated before peace could be restored. Both found religious justification for their participation in the war, Hoover notes, in the belief that the other nation had sinned in special ways. Each defended the just war theory, carrying the justification of the ancient thesis to new and, argues Hoover, possibly invalid heights. In his final chapter, Hoover offers a measured critique of Christian nationalism summarizing its dangers and identifying implications for the future.

This volume is a popular presentation of Nietzsche's thought. Hoover's analysis comes from the viewpoint of a Christian operating within a Thomist framework. An early chapter focuses on Nietzsche's life; the following chapters weave autobiographical materials into the treatment of his philosophical system, showing the close relationship between his life and thought. Hoover's study includes an analysis of Nietzsche's perspectivism, his contribution to propaganda theory, the demonstration of a deep and fundamental contradiction in his epistemology, and an analysis of his critique of anti-body idealism.