Philip Jenkins Quotes
Religion appears in so many contexts in WW1. Religion shaped the national identities and ambitions of several of the key players, especially Germany and Russia, both of which defined themselves as messianic nations. In both countries too, secular elites delved deeply into apocalyptic and prophetic ideas, giving their nations a millenarian bent.
Jenkins, Philip. The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade. HarperOne, 2014.
The two were cousins. Wilhelm was a very dominant personality and his cousin quite weak. This quotation shows the tyrannical view of the German Kaiser. The letters were secret but after the execution of the Czar, the Russians released the letters to show the dominant and warlike history of Germany under the Kaiser who was furious that the Russians had made such personal and secret letters public. Russia was in conflict with Japan in what would be called the Russo-Japanese War. The racist views of the German aristocracy was shared with respect to Asians in remembrance of the Mongol invasions of Russia.
Indeed the Arabs did invite the Russians in but neither India nor Pakistan did.
The Teutons were the Germanic tribes who were very warlike. His prediction of German war and aggression was demonstrated by WWI and WWII. The French Revolution diminished the influence of religion throughout Europe.
In this document written in his later years, he virulently attacks the Jews in vicious and crude language. This is a very different Martin Luther than his earlier years. See {617772}
The anti-intellectualism of many Protestant sects has its roots in this view of Martin Luther’s. The notion of reason as practiced by scientists as a hindrance to religion is not a new notion. Religious leaders have been trying to silence and discredit philosophers and scientists as long as there has been religion. Socrates was killed long before Christianity.
The phrase “Loyalty to the government is our national creed” was advocated by almost all politicians after the Civil War. There were a few communists of the left and libertarians on the right who would disagree but every president tool this position until the administration of Ronald Reagan who then many politicians claimed that the government was a problem and even an enemy of the people. Loyalty was in their view, not to be given to the Government, but to the ideas and ideals of America (as they saw them.) Since then many politicians would talk of “loyalty to America” but not use the McKinley phrase “loyalty to the government.”
Most of the Roman Catholic Clergy in Yugoslavia did not oppose the Nazis in WWII. Many in Croatia actually supported the Concentration Camp that the Croat Military Allies of Germany ran, The only major difference between that concentration camp and the Nazi run camps were that instead of murdering Jews en masse, the Croats murdered Serbs en masse. The Bishops were silent. After the Nazis were defeated, the Catholic Bishops attacked the pro Communist Yugoslav government run by Tito. To Tito the hypocrisy was palpable.
In 1453 the Ottoman Turks shocked Christendom by capturing Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Eastern Christian Empire. It was always perceived as a religious conflict between Christians and Muslims but that is an over simplification of a very complex sociological, religious, and political historical period. As this quotation shows us there were many Christians aiding the Muslim side. There were also many Muslims fighting on the Christian side.
Philip Jenkins is a professor of history at Baylor University in the United States, and co-director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He is also the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). He was professor (from 1993) and a distinguished professor (from 1997) of history and religious studies at the same institution; and also assistant, associate and then full professor of criminal justice and American studies at PSU, 1980–93.
