Nazism and Religion: The Problem of 'Positive Christianity'.

Current debates on Nazism and religion are focused around the notion that the Nazis sought to promote a kind of Christian faith called 'positive Christianity'. This article challenges such perspectives. It establishes that 'positive Christianity' had an existing meaning in German society before the Nazi Party was formed - dogmatic Christian faith - and demonstrates that this was the same interpretation of religious faith that Hitler appeared to advocate in Mein Kampf. By contrast to recent revisionist accounts, the paper argues that 'positive Christianity' had such a wide variety of interpretations that it cannot be considered as a cohesive construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]