A Study of Erich Przywara’s Engagement with National Socialism: A Critical Response to “Historical Criticism”

Abstract

AbstractUntil recently little attention has been paid to Erich Przywara’s engagement with National Socialism, and understandably so. Subject both to the terms of the Reichskonkordat of 1933 and the censors of the National Socialist regime, Przywara’s own voice and opinions about the regime were effectively stifled, if not completely silenced. In recent years, however, one American scholar, Paul Peterson, has taken Przywara’s muted voice and lack of overt resistance to the regime as a sign of “collaboration” with it. What is more, Peterson has accused Przywara, along with Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar, not only of fascist sympathies, but also of anti‐Semitism. It is shown here, however, not only that Peterson’s conclusions with regard to Przywara are mistaken, but that they seriously misrepresent Przywara’s thought and unjustly impugn his character. The first point of this article, accordingly, is to defend Przywara against Peterson’s charges, specifically, that of his supposed fascist sympathy with the National‐Socialist regime, just as I defended Przywara in an earlier article against the charge of anti‐Semitism. The positive point of this article (and the preceding), however, which Peterson’s scholarship has fortunately occasioned, is to clarify Przywara’s actual cultural and political views, and thereby contribute to a more adequate understanding of his role in twentieth‐century theology—not just as a respected Catholic metaphysician and philosopher of religion, but as a pioneer of Catholic dialogue with the modern world.