History Commons^™

Atoning For The Sins Of The Fatherland: The Gendered Nationalism Of The Ecumenical Sisterhood Of Mary, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In my book, Mothering the Fatherland, forthcoming from Oxford University Press, I analyze how the penitential practices of a group of Protestant nuns in Germany were rooted in their understanding of collective German national guilt in the aftermath of the Third Reich. Those with some prior familiarity with the group may know them as the Evangelical or Evangelische Sisterhood of Mary. I will refer to them throughout by their original name, the Ecumenical Sisterhood of Mary. While the book discusses the sisters’ gender and nationalism separately in the context of the sisters’ repentance and theology of collective national guilt, I …

Inverting The Eagle To Embrace The Star Of David: The Nationalist Roots Of German Christian Zionism, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

It is no secret that Christian Zionism in the U.S. has long been paired with American patriotism. Since at least as far back as William Blackstone’s 1891 “Memorial,” American Christian Zionists have proclaimed that their support of a Jewish homeland as bolstering their own country’s perceived privileged relationship with God. Less obvious is the link between German nationalism and Christian Zionism in that country in the period following World War II. Whereas American Christian Zionism has been marked by militarism and triumphalism, the German variant has been understandably penitential in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, this paper will demonstrate …

A Rabbi And Twelve-Hundred Missionaries Walk Into A Conference: Philo-Semitism And Anti-Semitism At Edinburgh, 1910, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Had a rabbi attended the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910, that rabbi’s ambivalence may have been equaled only by that of the delegates. This presentation will demonstrate how the conference’s first commission report expressed both philo- and anti-Semitism, affirming the value of the world’s Jewish population while portraying it as a threat. This juxtaposition reveals the conference as ahead of its time, in some regards, and an event rooted in the values of its time, in others.

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Trust, Repentance, And Apocalyptic Zionism: Basilea Schlink And The Evangelical Sisterhood Of Mary Respond To War, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wars past, present, and future have shaped the development of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. Mother Basilea Schlink wrote that her sisterhood was “a child of the last war,” referring to the Second World War. Her vision for her sisterhood was equally shaped by the Cold War and by her expectations of the imminent nuclear world war that would usher in the Apocalypse. To these wars Mother Basilea and her sisterhood responded with a radical trust in God, daily individual and corporate repentance, and unwavering support for God’s Old Testament people, the Jews, and, by extension, the State of Israel. …

Protestants Protesting Protestantism: 20th Century Experiments In Monasticism, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Contrary to popular belief, there have often been monastic sisterhoods and brotherhoods in Protestantism. In Germany, Möllenbeck, Loccum, and Marienberg all contained cloisters that embraced the Lutheran Reformation but retained much of their monastic practice. That such groups are relatively unknown may reflect the ambivalence of those in positions of power toward potential holdovers from Catholicism. Protestant monasticism has never been normative; therefore, its occurrence might best be understood as an implicit critique of the mainstream confessions. For the purposes of this paper I will not define monasticism as a vague and flexible lifestyle of contemplation and asceticism, as have …

The Evangelical Sisterhood Of Mary: Profile Of A Protestant Monastic Order, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

It is not self-evident that there should be Protestant nuns. Yet the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary has existed in Germany for over sixty years. Why? How did the Sisterhood come to be? And what are the Sisters’ distinctive practices and beliefs? To answer these questions, I will provide a brief historical overview of the sisters’ founding, followed by a survey of the teachings of Mother Basilea, their preeminent founder, which I will augment with an analysis of the architecture of the sisters’ communities.

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