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Katholiken, Kirche und Staat als Problem der Historie: Ausgewählte Aufsätze 1963-1992 by Heinz Hürten

1996; The Catholic University of America Press; Volume: 82; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cat.1996.0196

1534-0708

Eric Yonke,

Religion, Theology, and Education

BOOK REVIEWS 485 storm that would result in the suppression of the Society fifteen years later.Yet this congregation passed only twelve decrees, six of which dealt with its own procedures. Other matters that were central concerns of the congregations included the Society's government, missions, schools, and spiritual formation. On occasion the decrees illustrate an almost obsessive concern to regulate the minutiae of daily life; examples of this are the decrees on beards, birettas, and blessings at table. The topical index permits scholars to examine themes over several centuries such as the role ofThomas Aquinas in the curriculum ofJesuit schools and the admission of those withJewish ancestry into the Society. In his introduction Padberg justifies the publication of the decrees by stating that scholars from different disciplines will find them helpful,"because an easy command of the Latin language and especially of its nuances is no longer widespread " f. xii). Nonetheless, Padberg's use of "ours" to refer to Jesuits, references to "our schools," and tendency to sermonize suggest that he is directing his comments not at the international community of scholars but at Jesuits. Is this an indication thatJesuits no longer have "an easy command ofthe Latin language ?" A. Lynn Martin The University ofAdelaide Katholiken, Kirche und Staat als Problem der Historie:AusgewählteAufsätze 1963-1992. By Heinz Hurten. Edited by Hubert Gruber. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 1994. Pp. viii, 342.) This selection of Professor Hürten's articles, compiled by friends and colleagues into a commemorative volume for his sixty-fifth birthday, is a study in conservative German Catholic thought. As the title states, the central focus of this work is church-state relations, but it is primarily a defense of the Church in twentieth-century Germany. Beginning with three articles covering medieval episcopal authority, ecclesiology at the Councils of Constance and Basel, and nineteenth-century German Catholicism respectively, the collection moves on to five articles on the Weimar period, eight on the Nazi period, and six on the Federal Republic. This volume would best serve as a compendium to Hürten's magisterial study, Deutsche Katholiken, 1918-1945 (see my review article, ante, LXXX IJuIy, 1994], 534-545). As one would expect in a study of church-state relations, the author's arguments hinge on the definition of terms and boundaries. Critics of the Church's role in Nazi Germany have, in Hürten's estimation, failed to understand the proper political and moral boundaries ofthe Church in any state. Nor have they denned "opposition" or "resistance" (Widerstand or Resistenz) adequately, focusing narrowly on heroic deeds. While the Church would not politically oppose the Nazi regime by condoning revolution or rebellion, it offered the most effective resistance to the Nazi Weltanschauung. By participating in the life of 486 BOOK REVIEWS the Church, Hurten argues, common believers helped resist a totalitarian system and fortified themselves against National Socialism. The Church offered that sacramental life despite persecution, and therein lies the true nature of Catholic resistance, according to the author. In the six final essays of the collection, Hurten fleshes out his critique of church-state relations with a defense of Christian Democracy and a condemnation of nearly all that came with the 1960's. The legacy of Adenauer and the CDU/CSU is heralded as having founded a viable democracy upon the correct relationship of Christianity to the German citizen. The author portrays Vatican Council II as problematic at best, and Cardinal Ratzinger as a clarion in the contemporary Church. Commentary interspersed with evidence makes these essays both evocative and frustrating. There is much here to consider and debate, because Hurten articulates the conservative perspective with clarity and freshness. I was pleasantly surprised by the essays on the November Revolution and on Jacques Maritain's influence in Germany. The editor should also be commended for his coherent and logical selection of essays, which allows this book to become more than the sum of its parts. The publisher, however, should be chastised for the typographical errors that mar nearly every page. EricYonke University ofWisconsin-Stevens Point The Rise and Decline of Catholic Religious Orders:A Social Movement Perspective . By Patricia Wittberg, S.C. (Albany: The State University...