What made me wanted to read this book was due to the claims I have heard over the years by some atheists that the Nazis were Christians so it seems that a book on the Nazis or key leaders of the Nazis embracing an alternative belief system would be important to consider. The book was good in the beginning and the end. Right at the beginning of the book the authors defined the occult, paganism, Satanism and Christianity which is helpful though readers will note that his definition of Christianity is too broad and problematic for an Evangelical (basically, whatever religious system that attributes its belief as coming from Jesus). What I appreciated about this book is that it acknowledge how difficult it is to get an accurate history of Nazi occultism given that there has been a lot of sensationalism promoted by four main groups talking about Nazi occultism today: those for or against Paganism/Satanism/occult and those for or against the Nazis. The authors even devote a chapter on the myths of Nazi occultism and four sources for the embellishment of the extent of Nazi occultism including Allies’ propaganda and former disgruntled Nazis. This is balanced by the next chapter on the reality of Nazi occultism in which the authors argue that it was not as well spread as some might think though it seem to exists mainly among those under Heinrich Himmler and some in his organization, the SS. The book does not go into the full extent of all the Nazis named but interested readers would certainly have some sense of direction of trails of names to research up on. The rest of the book is then devoted to Karl-Maria Wiligut, a man whom Himmler clearly favored and the creator of much of the occultic imagination for Himmler and his Nazis’ fans. The bulk of the book is then devoted to primary sources translated from Himmler’s work—and the lack of much meaningful commentary by the authors means that for the general reading audience it remains enigmatic—and boring. The only exception is the part about the SS’ honor ring which Wiligut designed which shows the extent of Wiligut’s influence as pushed by Himmler. The rest of the primary sources is a collection of weird and unintelligible garble of wild interpretations of drawings filled with a whacky cosmology and fanciful pseudo-history. The guy even thought he was a secret Gypsy king! I did enjoy one of the appendix towards the end which interviewed a family friend and co-worker under Wiligut—and I thought she too was out there but it was an illustration to me of just how silly some people were in following Wiligut. It makes me realize the Christian truth that when people reject Christianity (Wiligut talked a lot about “Khristianity” which he believed is before “Christianity” and has something to do with Eurocentricism), they often times embrace something even more weird, foolish and bizarre.
Reblogged this on Capital for Radicalism and commented:
I recommend checking out “A Fire in the Minds of Men” for more like this.
If you read only one book on revolution during your entire
life, you must read Billington’s. This book is absolutely unequaled
in Its ‘scope,’ depth, and detail, In its magnificent
literary power, and in its biting, trenchant analysis of what
the subtitle calls the “Origins of the Revolutionary Faith.”
For revolution is a religious faith; as Billington says, it is
“perhaps the faith of our time” (p. 3), and his massive study
abundantly demonstrates the anti-Christian and pseudo-
Christian character of revolutionary ideology. One of the major
theses of his book is that the revolutionary faith originated
not in the critical rationalism of the French Enlightenment
(which, admittedly, was a religion as weil), but rather in
the blatantly occult romanticism of secret societies, which
stirred a heretical brew of Christian symbolism and pagan
mysticism. Out of this demonic mixture were distilled the intoxicating
revolutionary ideologies of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, the idolatrous attempts to replace the
Christian faith, preaching and practicing the gospel of salvation through the shed blood of man.
Great piece. Check this out: http://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/a_pdfs/newslet/preface/11pref.pdf
Thanks. While not accepting everything Gary North espouses (I do not embrace his eschatology), I do appreciate and often listen to what he has to say.
I am a fan of Gary North and his late father-in-law R.J. Rushdoony, as my father is. I am something of a localist Progressive and theonomist, so I sympathize with them though I’m not quite laissez-faire.
Whoops, I just caught myself and noted that the review was written by the late Dave Chilton. Your link got me curious and I found a PDF link to the book itself! http://www.granddistraction.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fire-In-The-Minds-Of-Men-James-H.-Billington.pdf
It is a great book!
Do you not allow comments on your blog?
Thanks for the post.
You’re welcome EvangelZ!
For readers, I just found this review of a book that is of the same subject: http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/a-review-of-new-religions-and-the-nazis/
“…when people reject Christianity… they often times embrace something even more weird, foolish and bizarre.”
Is this really your view of Christianity?
Yes.
Do you have concern that I dont see with that comment?