As we ponder our current spate of national self assertion that follows closely upon the recent ascent of physical fitness in our culture to a state of high fashion sometimes parading with a panache of spirituality that popularizers of yoga have packaged, well tailored to American appetites for the visible and outward life, we might recall that in the late 19th century leaders of a new and seemingly robust version of Christianity abandoned the sentimentality and 'feminine' forms of Victorian religion for a new model that stressed action rather than reflection and aggression rather than gentility. Advocates of this more practical and 'muscular' Christianity promoted organized sports and outdoor activities building bodies to ostensibly evangelize and effect social reform.
Concurrent with this was the birth of eugenics as a tool of social reform which swept the best minds of leading countries in this world with enthusiasm over the prospects of a promised procession toward the progressive realization of an ideal society growing steadily upon our planet. This rising optimism coupled with a renewed vision of Christian spirituality led one highly trained philologist, writer, and acclaimed speaker to recognize in the Sermon on the Mount the simplest and greatest message ever given to mankind, especially Jesus' citation that 'blessed are they who suffer for the sake of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'.
He eventually wrote a book entitled Michael: A Novel which was so successful as to warrant seventeen editions from 1932 through 1945. In the book can be seen his idealistic view of Jesus' religion suffering under ecclesiastical domination and ossification, in desperate need of renewal and revitalization, liberated from the shop worn institutional shackles saying that "The various churches have failed. Completely. They are no longer in the front lines, they have long since retreated to the rear guard. From that position, their resentment terrorizes any formation of a new religious will. Millions of people are waiting for this new formation, and their yearnings remain unfulfilled." Such sentiments were expressed as an attempt to restore the living reality of religion and certainly not an attack upon it saying further that "today's youth is not against God only against his cowardly religious menials, who try to commercialize Him as they do everything else".
He was recognized as an eminently courageous and brilliant journalist, a successful orator who became eventually Minister of Propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler, and on May 1, 1945 was the only one of the original Nazi leaders to remain with Hitler in the besieged bunker in Berlin. His name was (Paul) Joseph Goebbels.
As we proceed into the uncertainty of a new era characterized by emerging alliances in the labor of peace and justice, and perhaps find ourselves enthused with anything other than love and mercy as tools of liberation, let us pause and remember the well trodden path of so many seemingly inspired intentions on this planet which precede us as if to remind us always of the dangers of hubris which still echo from the legacy of alienation।
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