The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm

Joe Loconte

Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 - Church and state - 255 pages

In 1939-41, the American religious leadership was divided over the policy of appeasement and over U.S. involvement in the war against fascism and Nazism. Although some of the "doves", like John H. Holmes, deplored Nazi antisemitism, most championed American neutrality. They regarded the European conflict as a clash of imperialisms, rather than as a war of democracy against racism and totalitarianism. Many of them ignored or even approved of Nazi antisemitism. On the other hand, the "hawks" criticized Nazi racism and anti-humanism, and regarded appeasement and neutrality as a surrender of democracy to totalitarianism. Pp. 177-188 contain three articles by Stephen S. Wise published in this period. He claimed that Nazi threats to the Jews should be taken seriously; that Nazi racism is not only anti-Jewish, but also anti-Latin and anti-Slav; and that Hitler was not only a racist, but also anti-religious.

About the author

Joseph Loconte is the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation's Center for Religion and Civil Society.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler's Gathering Storm; G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
• Editor: Joe Loconte
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004
• ISBN: 0742534995, 9780742534995
• Length: 255 pages