Major Churches Research Articles

Ehe- und Familienlosigkeit als einziger Weg zum Heil: (Sexuelle) Askese als exklusives christliches Ideal im 4. Jahrhundert

In the 4th century, theological reflection on abstinence gained more attention than ever before. All major theologians of the time compiled at least one work on virginity and abstinence, trying to present these as the ideal Christian way of living. In some groups (the Eustathians in Asia Minor, the Hieracites in Egypt), the ideal of virginity even became an exclusive ideal, i. e. married Christians and other non-ascetics are, in their view, excluded from eternal salvation. The major church reacted to the exclusive ascetics’ challenge by rejecting their claim to exclusiveness and by emphasizing virginity in a hierarchy of Christian ways of life, while at the same time accepting married people as potentially capable of salvation.

PUBLIC EVENTS HELD BY THE REBELS OF 1794

A public event, whichever kind it may be – entertaining, educational, educative, and formative, strengthens and rallies individuals into community, amplifying mutual ties, shaping and engrafting common values. Such events allow each and every one to feel a part of a larger common action or undertaking. First public events after the insurgence of 1794 took place right after the capital fell under control of the rebels. In three and a half months Vilnius saw at least ten public events of the rebels. All these events could be divided into secular and religious. Seven of those event could be considered secular: solemn pronouncements of the government – 1 (announcement of the Act of Insurgence and a public oath); military parades – 2 (Vilnius Guards and armed forces of Vilnius voivodeship); commemorations – 1 (commemoration of the Constitution of 3 May 1791); public punishments (three times). Secular events by the rebels were quite closely linked to the church, since often they were concluded with some religious note, usually a mass. Speaking of religious events it is important to note that the Curia of Vilnius bishopric supported the insurgence, and commissioned clergy to attend events organized by the leadership of the insurgence, initiating such events as well. Roman Catholic Church held two solemn burials of the rebels and a one solemn mass with a procession. Most (i.e. half ) of the secular and religious events of the rebels took place in May. In the most important events, such as announcement of the Act of Insurgence or solemn burial of rebels, in addition to the crowds from all social levels members of the Council of Lithuania, clergy of all ranks, members of the Senate of Vilnius University and professors, and army officers participated as well. Members of the city magistrates are mentioned less frequently, and it might be the case that most of them also belonged to other institutions of the rebels. Smaller events were attended by representatives of all aforementioned institutions. Secular events were held under open sky – city hall square and the square of military campus, possibly not far from Pohulianka, whereas major church events took place in the Church of St Johns. Keywords: 1794 insurgence, insurgence of Tadeusz Kościuszko, public events, Church of St Johns, city hall square, Pohulianka.

Space, perspective and public preaching. reconstructing the role and functionality of public squares in the latin levant: the case of famagusta (northern cyprus)

This paper examines the spatial relations between the principal public squares in Latin Famagusta and the architecture of the major Latin and Greek churches which dominated them. The study uses historical and archaeological records to reconstruct parts of fourteenth-century Famagusta’s urban layout and uses a method called perspectival logic to demonstrate that the plan of the city’s streets and piazzas was not a result of chaotic, ad hoc decisions. Rather, it was consciously designed to shape the lived experience of those present in the city. It enforced social hierarchies and created public spaces that addressed the commercial and religious needs of the city’s diverse urban society. Pedestrians crossing Famagusta’s piazzas were offered favorable views of religious monuments, which strengthened the public reception of the religious messages conveyed through their architecture. The shape of each piazza facilitated the fluency of pedestrian movement and manipulated its direction, so that areas located close to external galleries of Famagusta’s churches were secluded from daily traffic. This made these spaces suitable for outdoor preaching, on occasions such as St. Bridget of Sweden’s delivery of public sermons to the inhabitants of Famagusta in 1372.

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.” (1Cor 12:4): images of the self and concepts of office of LGBTQ* pastors in Germany

ABSTRACTAfter providing background information on the legal status and admission of LGBTIAQ* pastors in Germany, the paper focusses on experiences of LGBTQ* Protestant pastors in the major German Protestant church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) to explore how they include their sexual orientation and/or gender in their pastoral work. LGBTIAQ* pastors face the challenge of managing visibility and discretion, in relation to a heteronormative setting, as well as the specific expectations of LGBTIAQ* Christians. The presumption of shared experiences and knowledge by similarly marginalized people plays a part in their ministry. The paper argues that embracing those experiences and community knowledge as part of pastoral theology can strengthen their reflection on pastoral work.

Sculpting Simulacra in Medieval Germany, 1250–1380Assaf PinkusFarnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014.234 pp.; 14 color and 80 b/w ills.Cloth $125.00ISBN 9781472422651

Pinkus’s reading of Uta as a simulacrum rather than an imago is compelling, yet it reveals a central unanswered question of the book. Are we meant to believe that the patrons, planners, and artists conceived of the sculpture with the concept of the simulacrum in mind? Or simply, in retrospect, that the medieval concept of the simulacrum offers a way to understand how viewers may have reacted to it? In example after example, Pinkus never clarifies this crucial point, seeming to want to have it both ways; he does occasionally use the word “conscious” to describe the Naumburg figures’ creation as simulacrum, yet stops with that brief claim. As I try to hypothetically reconstruct the contemporary conversations that must have led to the sculptures’ creation and design, I simply cannot accept that, for such large, prominent sculptures in a major church, the simulacrum would have been the prevailing inspiration for their meaning and creation. If it were, what purpose would it have been intended to serve? If we accept that a figure like Uta was an empty center onto which people projected their own ideas, why would an ecclesiastical or secular patron want this? For Pinkus, the sculpture simply “results” in imaginative, engaged acts of viewing, yet the author never spends enough time unpacking what these acts of response would really have been like, or what new understandings viewers might have emerged with, relying instead on terminology: sculpted simulacra inspire viewing experiences that are “imaginative,” “engaged,” “immediate,” “somatic,” “embodied,” “voyeuristic,” et cetera. In relying on these terms, which characterize viewer response rather than truly describing it, it seems that the author has either gone too far or not far enough. If the goal were to imaginatively re-create these viewing experiences, the reader might have been served by something even more adventurous or experimental—perhaps passages describing a hypothetical individual’s reaction to particular works (somewhat along the lines of what Michael Camille did in his imaginative re-creations of Pierre Remiet’s interior life in Master of Death). As it is, the reader is too often left only with words that describe the experiences, rather than a sense of what they were really like, or what their purpose was. The intentions behind medieval works can be opaque, and evidence for them can be difficult or impossible to find, but the author might have engaged this crucial question in greater depth, even if only speculatively. Does the meaning of the viewer’s experience emerge from a conscious recognition and understanding of the sculptures as simulacra? Or from viewers’ self-identification with them? Or is any emotional, bodily response enough to create a particular meaning and resonance in and of itself? Part of the problem is that the Naumburg sculptures are presented in a vacuum, with little discussion of how the donor figures relate to other works of art in the church, or to a broader sociocultural setting in which the proposed acts of viewer response might take shape. Pinkus asserts several times in the book that he is not presenting comprehensive historical analyses of these works, and while this decision does allow him to be admirably adventurous and exploratory, it limits his ability to explore the kinds of questions described above about the possible reasons for commissioning and sculpting these simulacra.

Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery: Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonOctober 1, 2016–February 5, 2017CatalogueEnglish Medieval Embroidery: Opus AnglicanumEdited by Clare Browne, Glyn Davies, and M. A. MichaelNew Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016.336 pp.; 270 color ills.Cloth $75.00ISBN 9780300222005The Age of Opus AnglicanumEdited by M. A. MichaelLondon: Brepols

<i>Opus Anglicanum</i>: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery: Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonOctober 1, 2016–February 5, 2017Catalogue<i>English Medieval Embroidery: <i>Opus Anglicanum</i></i>Edited by Clare Browne, Glyn Davies, and M. A. MichaelNew Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2016.336 pp.; 270 color ills.Cloth $75.00ISBN 9780300222005<i>The Age of <i>Opus Anglicanum</i></i>Edited by M. A. MichaelLondon: Brepols

The church and moral decision-making

This article deals with the burning issue of moral decision-making by major church assemblies,such as regional and general synods. Moral decisions by church assemblies have createdmany conflicts in churches in the past and at times did an injustice to the prophetic testimonyof churches in society. The question arises as follows: To what extent should church assembliesbe involved in moral decision-making? The central theoretical argument of this study is thatalthough the notion of a ‘biblical ethic’ is valid, synods and council of churches should beextremely cautious and even hesitant to formulate moral decisions because of differences inhermeneutical approaches and the principle that the church is primarily the ‘local congregationof believers’. The church is not in the first instance a national, general or international socialstructure that should pass conclusive resolutions and that testifies by way of moderators orelected church leaders. To unfurl this central theoretical argument, the researcher refers to thecurrent hermeneutical discourses and proposes certain ideas regarding the possible role ofthe church with respect to moral decision-making. In view of the information provided, apoint of view is advocated regarding the way in which churches could be involved in moraldecision-making today.

Clio’s Arsenal

The twelve-year Truce in the Dutch Revolt occasioned the clash between a liberal Reformed faction, known as Remonstrants, and the orthodox, known as Counter-Remonstrants. After the Synod of Dordt sealed the orthodox victory, the polemic between the two sides on doctrine and the limits of tolerance, first conducted in a pamphlet war, found its culmination in three major church histories: the Remonstrant Uytenbogaert produced the first vernacular church history which anchored the Remonstrant position firmly in the past; he was refuted almost page-by-page by the orthodox Trigland; and finally Brandt published his irenic four-volume History of the Reformation. This study analyzes this marshalling of Clio1 for their cause by the Remonstrants, and the counterarguments used by the orthodox.

The ecclesial notion of ‘family’ versus authentic families today: Evaluation of the initial findings of the 2014 Synod of Catholic Bishops

The traditional institution of the family within Roman Catholic Christianity and Christianity in general is in an invidious position in contemporary society, partly because it lacks an agreed definition in a fluid global context. The church is an institution in which families subsist and which both needs and bolsters the family unit for its own existence and stability. However, all major churches seem to be stuck in outdated traditional modes of understanding which are exclusive and cause great distress to many who do not conform to them. The Roman Catholic Church has recently inaugurated a discussion of pastoral challenges currently facing family life. This is an attempt to evaluate critically its initial findings through deconstructing the traditional notion of family on which the Church teaching seems to rely.

Lofty Sculpture: Flying Buttress Decoration and Ecclesiastical Authority

The monumental standing figures on the outer side of the flying buttress piers at Chartres Cathedral ushered in a new form of buttress decoration. Subsequently, the majority of large Gothic churches constructed in northern France used this type of decoration on their buttresses, sometimes translating the figures to positions above or below the flyer head. Today most of this buttress sculpture is heavily damaged, making the identification of specific programs difficult or impossible. The comparison of several examples, however, allows us to identify general trends. The earliest examples at Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, and the basilica of Saint-Quentin emphasize episcopal and liturgical imagery, in which the figures suggest a procession. While the specific iconography of these programs differs, they consistently underscore the authority of the church and its bishop through the presentation of pastoral or administrative roles. After the initial development of flying buttress sculpture in the first half of the thirteenth century, it became a common feature of cathedrals and other major churches constructed during the Middle Ages in France.

Fifty Years after the Second Vatican Council

Fifty Years after the Second Vatican Council

Commentary: Sustained advocacy produces success in the Philippines

After a protracted 14-year debate, Republic Act 10354, ‘The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012’ (hereby referred to as The Law) was passed on 17 January 2013. In response to severe assaults on The Law, the Supreme Court on 8 April 2014 finally upheld its constitutionality and supported the validity of most of its key provisions. Among other points, The Law affirms women's right to reproductive and sexual health information and services, including contraception, and mandates the government to include age and development appropriate reproductive health education for all school-going adolescents. Advocates, such as the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network, one of several who initiated The Law in 1999, understood the influence of the Roman Catholic Church over Filipinos (Ruiz-Austria, 2004), and therefore emphasized that the draft law promoted basic ‘pro-life’, ‘pro-family’ and ‘pro-poor’ values (Sales, 2012). They focused primarily on contraceptive access, arguing that The Law ‘recognizes, respects and promotes the right of every Filipino, including the youth, to free and informed choice’ (Youth Consortium for the RH Bill, 2011). Faculty of Roman Catholic colleges and universities (Fonbuena, 2012; InterAksyon, 2012), and major Protestant and indigenous Filipino Churches, among others, rallied in support of the draft, pointing out that it protects and helps to fulfil the human rights to health, gender equality and freedom of religion and expression encompassed by the national constitution and state obligations under international human rights law. By contrast, opponents of the draft emphasized Article II Section 12 of the 1987 Constitution, which requires the state to ‘equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception’ (Viado, 2004). They assert that The Law is a departure from God's decree on the sanctity of family, life and marriage, and that the nation would be decimated by unbridled population control. One Supreme Court judge publicly stated that The Law would ‘prevent a child through poison’ (Audio Recording of Oral Argument, 2013a) and restrict poor people's right to procreate (Audio Recording of oral argument, 2013b). Despite opposition campaigns, the public has long supported access to contraception. In 1991, 80% preferred electoral candidates who supported family planning (Mangahas, 2008). In 2008, the Social Weather Station, a leading poll centre, reported that 71% of Filipinos supported legislation on reproductive health and that ‘Filipino opinion on RH is roughly the same for Catholics and non-Catholics, the same for regular (weekly and up) and irregular churchgoers, and the same for the great many who trust, and the few who distrust, the Catholic Church’ (Mangahas, 2008). Despite active campaigning by the Catholic Church against pro-Law Senatorial candidates, a significant number won in the 2013 elections. ‘The election results show there is no Catholic vote’, concluded a leading activist (Yu-Tzu, 2013). Civil society groups now aim to ensure that The Law is translated into effective policies and programmes, shaped and evaluated against a human rights framework. This requires, for example, monitoring and advocacy to ensure that quality information, equipment, supplies and services are available to women and girls, especially those who are disadvantaged; monitoring of the availability and quality of services; and data gathering to inform programming and budgeting processes. Civil society also aims to participate in the development of a comprehensive reproductive health education curriculum; to inform women and young people about their rights and entitlements under The Law; and to counter inevitable challenges to The Law in the courts and during implementation. Finally, civil society coalitions will work to fill shortfalls in The Law, for instance by removing third party consent requirements; preventing abuses of the right of providers to conscientious objection; and ensuring that public officials vigorously carry out the requirements of The Law.

Shrinking Religious Communities and Thriving Interreligious Social Work in Postsecular Sweden

Sweden is considered to be one of the most secular countries when measuring items such as church service attendance, expressed beliefs in God, and agreement with statements such as “religion is an important part of life,” compared to other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Official church attendance in major church congregations, such as the Church of Sweden and most other Protestant Free Churches, has shown a pattern of decrease in membership in modern times, with some congregations risking to disappear as a result. New configurations of social work practice are challenging current congregations with crossover-interfaith schemes, shared buildings, and community-oriented services with a field presence in marginalized urban areas, replacing homogeneous and diaconal or charitable work. Three cases of interreligious social work are analyzed, and in particular the social and religious leadership skills required for collaboration between the religious communities as well as the surrounding society. The interreligious social work practice is also an important factor of social service provision in the concerned local communities and has strengthened the role of religion in the social sphere in what can be expressed as a postsecular Sweden.

Citizenship in the Brazilian Context – theoretically, practically and theologically

Citizenship has become the key concept for democracy in Brazil after transition. Often referred to, it denotes rather a conceptual field than a clear-cut definition. Following the central insights of Liberation Theology, seeking to adapt to the current democratic situation and the need for a focus on citizenship, this article argues for such focus within the framework of a public theology. First, it offers a theoretical, conceptual reflection, followed by a presentation of the contributions to citizenship by three major and representative Brazilian churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil and the Assemblies of God. Finally, it presents, briefly, five elements of a theology of citizenship based on central assets of Lutheran theology that are able to respond to current challenges of Brazilian democracy and society.

The role of the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Uganda in public discourse on homosexuality and ethics

The passage of an Anti-Homosexuality Act in the Uganda Parliament (December 2013), its endorsement by President Yoweri Museveni (February 2014), and subsequent invalidation in Uganda's Supreme Court (July 2014), have focused international attention on Uganda's punitive attitudes to the gay and lesbian community, the survival of colonial sodomy laws and the recent legislative campaigns to intensify anti-gay laws. Much international coverage has focused on the impact of religious campaigns from American Pentecostal and evangelical constituencies to alert Ugandans to the dangers of ‘homosexuality’. International press coverage has also often characterised Uganda as a deeply conservative, deeply religious country, where attitudes have traditionally been unsympathetic to gays and lesbians, and to sexual expressions which deviate from the heterosexual norm. This paper challenges many of these stereotypes. It attempts to show that American conservative religion is neither as widespread nor as important as the publicity accorded to it suggests. The paper seeks to demonstrate that the majority religious communities, the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Church of Uganda, are deeply embedded within Ugandan culture, and are much more important as shapers of public opinion and in echoing public sentiment than Pentecostal churches. In that sense the anti-homosexuality campaign cannot be primarily seen as a response to recent external conservative influences. The two major churches claim to speak for the vast majority of Ugandans, and to have a central role in shaping debates about the ethical foundations of Uganda's social, spiritual and political life. Their influence on the debates about homosexuality has been decisive in a number of ways, which will be explored in this paper. Nevertheless, despite the churches' recent intervention in opposition to Gay rights, the paper seeks to question the idea that Uganda's culture is as solidly homophobic as is sometimes portrayed, both by Ugandans keen to assert that homosexuality is alien to Africa, and international critics keen to characterise Uganda as deeply entrenched in homophobia. On the contrary, the paper seeks to show that homophobia is, if anything, quite a recent phenomenon in Uganda, and is relatively shallow.

The Right of the Protestant Left: God's Totalitarianism. By Mark Thomas Edwards. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. x + 298 pp. $90.00 cloth.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Right of the Protestant Left: God's Totalitarianism . By Mark Thomas Edwards . New York : Palgrave Macmillan , 2012. x + 298 pp. $90.00 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesThe story is by now familiar: after dominating the American religious landscape, the hegemony of the mainline Protestant churches began to wane in the 1960s and then deteriorated rapidly in the decades that followed. Replacing them were conservative churches of what came to be called either the Christian Right or the Religious Right. The split in Protestantism that first surfaced between modernists and fundamentalists a century ago has now more or less played itself out. The modernists did not fare well.But reports of the death of the mainline are clearly exaggerated. At least, that seems to be the case in the historiography of American religion, which is witnessing a surge on works on white, liberal, modernist, ecumenical Protestants in the twentieth century. Even if the major liberal churches have never recovered their influence, the mainline has never been more interesting to historians.With The Right of the Protestant Left , Mark Thomas Edwards joins a growing list of scholarship on how liberal white Protestants helped shaped American politics and foreign relations in the first half of the twentieth century. His focus is on Christian realists, a diverse and disputatious group usually overshadowed by, and often even conflated with, the towering figure of Reinhold Niebuhr. Edwards does not want to add to the growing field of Niebuhr studies, though as he admits the great man is impossible to ignore. Instead, Edwards seeks to recapture the political ideology of those establishment clergy who led the Christian realist movement, and mainline Protestantism more broadly, from the 1930s to the 1950s. In doing so, he provides a highly original interpretation of twentieth-century religious history. Authoritative in tone and persuasive in its conclusions, The Right of the Protestant Left will be an important and influential book.Edwards's argument is nuanced and complex, but it can be essentially boiled down to three propositions: first, members of the old Protestant left marked a continuation of the Social Gospel movement into the 1930s and beyond, long past the point (c.1920) when most historians have declared its death; second, they sought world order, particularly after 1945, through a global ecumenism that would be led by American Protestants working with their government; and third, and most innovatively, they had much more in common with traditionalist conservatives than has been previously recognized. Motivating all three concerns was the emergence of industrial authoritarianism. Industrialization everywhere undermined the moral bases of society and, through its dehumanizing power structures and reliance on machines and bureaucracies, threatened to destroy the dignity of the individual. The subsequent rise of communism, fascism, and National Socialism imperiled not only democracy but Christianity itself by elevating the state above all else as an object of human veneration. …

Spätantike Umbrüche im Stadtbild von Teurnia

The text will show changes in the roman city of Teurnia, located at the hillside of the Holzer Berg. An older Oppidum might be the nucleus of the Claudian Municipium, although the 1st century a. d. was formative for its appearance. During the following centuries the town lost of importance until it became the Late Antique provincial capital. The town got a city wall and older parts of the urban structures like the forum were renewed. But instead of building houses next to each other a trend to free standing buildings can be observed. An episcopal church is situated in the west of the town. Another major church outside the fortification is most likely its arian equivalent, built during the Ostrogothic reign, an adapted as cemetery church afterwards.

Temporal Dynamics of Religion as a Determinant of HIV Infection in East Zimbabwe: A Serial Cross-Sectional Analysis

BackgroundReligion is an important underlying determinant of HIV spread in sub-Saharan Africa. However, little is known about how religion influences changes in HIV prevalence and associated sexual behaviours over time.ObjectivesTo compare changes in HIV prevalence between major religious groups in eastern Zimbabwe during a period of substantial HIV risk reduction (1998–2005) and to investigate whether variations observed can be explained by differences in behaviour change.MethodsWe analysed serial cross-sectional data from two rounds of a longitudinal population survey in eastern Zimbabwe. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were developed to compare differences in sexual behaviour and HIV prevalence between religious groups and to investigate changes over time controlling for potential confounders.ResultsChristian churches were the most popular religious grouping. Over time, Spiritualist churches increased in popularity and, for men, Traditional religion and no religion became less and more common, respectively. At baseline (1998–2000), HIV prevalence was higher in Traditionalists and in those with no religion than in people in Christian churches (men 26.7% and 23.8% vs. 17.5%, women: 35.4% and 37.5% vs. 24.1%). These effects were explained by differences in socio-demographic characteristics (for Traditional and men with no religion) or sexual behaviour (women with no religion). Spiritualist men (but not women) had lower HIV prevalence than Christians, after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics (14.4% vs. 17.5%, aOR = 0.8), due to safer behaviour. HIV prevalence had fallen in all religious groups at follow-up (2003–2005). Odds of infection in Christians reduced relative to those in other religious groups for both sexes, effects that were mediated largely by greater reductions in sexual-risk behaviour and, possibly, for women, by patterns of conversion between churches.ConclusionVariation in behavioural responses to HIV between the major church groupings has contributed to a change in the religious pattern of infection in eastern Zimbabwe.

Un sigillion inédit du patriarche de Constantinople Jérémie II et d’Alexandre Sylvestre sur la réforme du calendrier

With the present investigation, based upon the codex no 2347 (National Library of Greece) including an unpublished patriarchal document, we have the special opportunity to contribute to a further and more detailed examination concerning the reformation of the Gregorian calendar. We also try to study the development of the activity of Jesuits to consolidate this innovation in the area of Russia Minor (Ruthenians) and to provide a useful insight into the relations between the two major churches and doctrines, Orthodox and Roman Catholic. We approach, through their representatives, the historical conditions to the lands dominated by the Ottomans and the Venetians during the second half and especially the two last decades of the 16th century and generally the factors that progressively shaped the attitudes, the argumentation and the ideological views which enable us to understand from that angle the true origins of the conflict relevant to the introduction of the new calendar.

The Protestant Churches in Saxony-Anhalt in the Shadow of the German Christian Movement and National Socialism, 1945–1949

The two major Protestant churches in Saxony-Anhalt, the Church Province of Saxony(Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsens[KPS])and the State Church of Anhalt(Landeskirche Anhalts[LKA]), undertook denazification processes against “compromised” pastors and church hierarchs after 1945. Where the Church Province faced secular criticism about “lenient” denazification, the Anhalt Church enjoyed state support, largely because it admitted political representatives to its review commission. Hierarchs in the KPS explained their leniency with reference to the resistance of Christians in the Third Reich, a particular theology of church and state relations, and forgiveness. The verdicts handed down, nonetheless, were premised primarily on each clergyman's affiliation to the former German Christian movement and not on Nazi party membership; denazification was therefore “de-German-Christianization.” (The German Christian movement was a heterodox movement heavily influenced by Nazism.) However, quite apart from de-German-Christianization, there was also pragmatism within both(mutatis mutandis)the KPS and the LKA. Both desired a fully manned and unified pastorate in a time of acute need. Most churchmen withstood denazification as a result. One pastor in Anhalt exemplifies the process. Formerly a member, Erich Elster renounced the German Christian movement as a “false path” after 1945. He continued in his pastoral duties, albeit with an admonishment to preach orthodoxy. The general continuity of churchmen did not provide for unity in any case, and it even led to recrimination and in places a post-war perpetuation of the Third Reich “church struggle”(Kirchenkampf)that had pitted German Christians against members of the Confessing Church.