HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

Many church leaders in the Allied nations declared World War II was a "just" war. However, Church of England Bishop George Bell of Chichester famously withdrew his support for the just cause of the war after the mass bombing of Dresen. This cost him the most senior appointment in the Anglican Church as Archbishop of Canterbury.

In Germany, Hitler attempted to bring state and church policy together with his German Christian church, combining religious and Teutonic symbolism and deifying his concept of the superiority of the German race. Many supported this, arguing that God spoke through Hitler and nature just as God speaks through scripture.

A minority, the Confessing Church, led by Martin Niemoeller, opposed Hitler. Bishop Bell was very close to the Confessing Church and met with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of its leading members, who was executed for plotting against Hitler. While the Confessing Church denounced what they saw as Hitler worship, they failed to condemn the "Final Solution" although they did protest against Hitler's Jewish policy.

For many theologians, some of the atrocities of World War II remain a matter of profound concern since they illustrate the human potential for utter evil. The scale of involvement in mass murder begs the question of whether many felt they had no choice but to comply with orders or whether they really believed Jews should be exterminated. Jewish thought would be transformed in the post-Holocaust world, where the questions "why" and "where was God" loom large.