Religion and Politics - Prussian Union of Churches, Racism in Israel, Zionism, Intelligent Design Movement, Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 122. Chapters: Prussian Union of churches, Racism in Israel, Zionism, Intelligent design movement, Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, Polygamy, State religion, Separation of church and state, Teach the Controversy, English Reformation, Religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States, List of bishops in the Church of England, State atheism, Dhimmi. Excerpt: During the 19th century, through a series of decrees, King Frederick William III united the Lutheran Church and the Reformed (Calvinist) Church in Prussia. The Prussian Union of churches (known under various names during its existence) was the church body which emerged through this union in 1817. It became the biggest independent religious organisation in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany, with about 18 million parishioners. The church underwent two schisms (one permanent since the 1830s, one temporary 1934-1948), due to changes in governments and their policies. After being the favoured state church of Prussia in the 19th century, it suffered interference and oppression at several times in the 20th century, including the persecution of many parishioners. In the 1920s the Second Polish Republic and Lithuania, and in the 1950s to 1970s East Germany, the People's Republic of Poland, and the Soviet Union imposed permanent or temporary organisational divisions, eliminated entire congregations, and expropriated church property, transferring it either to secular uses or to different churches which were more favoured by the various governments. In the course of the Second World War the church underwent massive destructions of its structures by strategic bombing during World War II and by the end of the war many parishioners fled from the advancing Soviet forces. After the war complete ecclesiastical provinces vanished following the expulsion of most parishioners living east of the Oder-Neisse line. The two post-war periods saw major reforms from within the church, strengthening the parishioners' democratic participation and equal rights of men and women. In theology the church counted many renowned persons as its members - such as Friedrich Schleiermacher, Julius Wellhausen (temporarily), Adolf von Harnack, Karl Barth (temporarily), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or Martin Niemoller (temporarily), to name only a few. In the early 1950s the church body was transformed into a