Overview

Baptists and Lutherans often define the tension of being in the world, but not in terms of two separate realms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. However, their understanding of these realms and their delicate connection is quite nuanced. Within the Lutheran tradition, the two kingdoms are held in tension, which in turn leads to a precarious interaction of state and church. In the (Ana)Baptist tradition, a much stricter duality is emphasised, resulting in a more radical and separatist stance. 'Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Arnold Köster' analyses and compares the historical development of these two viewpoints, and to discover how these traditions, represented in the lives of two individual followers, responded to the ideological onslaught of neopaganism and the enforced political conformity of the Third Reich. Compared with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, little is known of the Baptist preacher Arnold Köster. His ministry as a pastor of the Baptist church in Vienna lasted from 1928-1960. During the Nazi regime, he consistently preached critically and prophetically against its underlying ideology.

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Reviews

'[Spanring] has both made a valuable contribution to and provided a resource for our better understanding of the churches' situation under Hitler and also shows how such a memory can still illuminate our own context.' - Paul Ballard, Theological Book Review, Vol. 26 No. 2, 2016 'This is a useful read for students of the church under the Third Reich, highlighting a little known pastor and the complex, sometimes ambiguous, nature of his resistance to Nazism. There is also interesting material on the Confessing Church, and on how the different trajectories of the Reformation, Lutheran, and Anabaptist fed into the catastrophe of the twentieth century Germany. So well worth the read'. - Peter Waddell, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Volume 24 Issue 4, October 2017

'[Spanring] has both made a valuable contribution to and provided a resource for our better understanding of the churches' situation under Hitler and also shows how such a memory can still illuminate our own context.' - Paul Ballard, Theological Book Review, Vol. 26 No. 2, 2016 'This is a useful read for students of the church under the Third Reich, highlighting a little known pastor and the complex, sometimes ambiguous, nature of his resistance to Nazism. There is also interesting material on the Confessing Church, and on how the different trajectories of the Reformation, Lutheran, and Anabaptist fed into the catastrophe of the twentieth century Germany. So well worth the read'. - Peter Waddell, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Volume 24 Issue 4, October 2017

Author Information

Paul Spanring is the minster of Cheddar Baptist Church in Somerset, UK. He has been involved in Christian work in his native country of Austria as well as Micronesia and Africa.

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