Hitler's Religion: The Twisted Beliefs That Drove the Third Reich - Hardcover

by Richard Weikart (Author)

For a man whom history can never forget, Adolf Hitler remains a persistent mystery on one front--his religious faith. Atheists tend to insist Hitler was a devout Christian. Christians counter that he was an atheist. And still others suggest that he was a practicing member of the occult.

None of these theories are true, says historian Richard Weikart. Delving more deeply into the question of Hitler's religious faith than any researcher to date, Weikart reveals the startling and fascinating truth about the most hated man of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler was a pantheist who believed nature was God. In Hitler's Religion, Weikart explains how the laws of nature became Hitler's only moral guide--how he became convinced he would serve God by annihilating supposedly "inferior" human beings and promoting the welfare and reproduction of the allegedly superior Aryans in accordance with racist forms of Darwinism prevalent at the time.

Front Jacket

The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich

For a man whom history can never forget, Adolf Hitler remains a persistent mystery on one front--his religious faith. Atheists tend to insist Hitler was a devout Christian. Christians counter that he was an atheist. And still others suggest that he was a practicing member of the occult.

None of these theories is true, says historian Richard Weikart. Delving more deeply into the question of Hitler's religious faith than any researcher to date, Weikart reveals the startling and fascinating truth about the most hated man of the twentieth century: Adolf Hitler was a pantheist who believed nature was the only true "God."

In Hitler's Religion, Weikart explains how the laws of nature became Hitler's only moral guide, and why Hitler claimed--even believed--he was serving God by annihilating supposedly "inferior" human beings and promoting the welfare and reproduction of the allegedly superior Aryan race. Like the racist forms of Darwinism prevalent at the time, Hitler's twisted religion was a direct attack on the Judeo-Christian ethics on which Western civilization is built.

Author Biography

Richard Weikart is professor of modern European history at California State University, Stanislaus. His has published five previous books, including The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life (2016), From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2004), and Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Process (2009). He has published scholarly articles in journals such as German Studies Review and Journal of the History of Ideas. He has appeared in several documentaries, and his work has been featured and discussed in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, National Review, Christianity Today, World magazine, various radio shows, and other venues.