Arve T. Thorsen

The Nation As Faith: Revealing the Secrets of French and German Nationalism in the Eve of the First World War Arve T. Thorsen

France and Germany in the early 20th century were communities of faith. In the national rhetoric of the time they appeared not only as countries but as beliefs. To each of them a national gospel was closely linked, which this innovative study sets out to explore. The gospel of republican France was a transfer of faith from the Church to the republican nation. That of imperial Germany was a fusion of national and Lutheran-protestant thought. In both countries, a common Catholic version of the gospel was in opposition: it accepted neither model, insisting on an ideal of symbiosis between state and Church. A complex interplay between national and religious tradition produced two very different national gospels. France was an open universalistic church, like the catholic had always been. Conversely, the German national community appeared much more as a particularistic tribe: it was considerably more self-referential, had strong anti-universalistic currents and a much more closed view of the national community. It appeared as a community not only of faith, but also of blood.