Panel: ENGAGING IN THE WORLD: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN DIALOGUE



141.6 - "BEYOND CONFESSIONAL DIVIDES: ALFRED DELP AND INTERCONFESSIONAL COOPERATION IN NAZI GERMANY"

AUTHORS:
Evans E. (Oakland University ~ Rochester Hills ~ United States of America)
Text:
In the aftermath of the Kulturkampf, a systematic attack against the Catholic Church during the 1870s led by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Germany remained deeply divided along confessional lines, particularly between Catholics and Protestants, who often regarded one another with suspicion or hostility. These divisions continued into the Nazi era and often hindered cooperation between the confessions. Jesuit priest Alfred Delp, however, brought a unique perspective to these tensions since he was born to a Catholic mother and Protestant father and was raised for a time as a Lutheran. As a social philosopher, Delp argued that despite theological differences, Catholics and Protestants share fundamental moral and ethical ideals rooted in natural law. In the face of the injustice and moral crisis posed by National Socialism, he believed that longstanding confessional disputes had become secondary to the shared responsibility of defending human dignity and Christian ethical principles. This led Delp to participate in 1942 in the Kreisau Circle, an interconfessional resistance group that sought to envision a social and political order based on Christianity after the fall of the Nazi regime. This paper argues that Delp's willingness to collaborate with Protestants and non-Christians fostered greater interconfessional cooperation within the Kreisau Circle and demonstrated how shared religious ethics could serve as a foundation for resisting injustice and imagining a more just society. In doing so, the paper contributes to this panel by suggesting that even amid one of the most destructive regimes in modern history, dialogue across confessional boundaries could enable transformative action in the pursuit of a humane and just social order.