III. Mere references to God, Providence, the Lord, and so on do not constitute Christianity. Hitler also made references to "gods" and "goddesses," proving either that he was a polytheist, or that his religious rhetoric was not always illustrative of his sincere beliefs. Those who assert Hitler's Christianity based on his religious sounding statements or phrases are entirely ignorant of the whole context and trend of 19th-century German culture. There were many people who explicitly rejected biblical Christianity, and wanted nothing to do with Jesus the Son of God dying on the cross, but who nevertheless felt that there was some sort of a higher spiritual realm. Whether Hegel's World Spirit, or the pantheistic cosmic force of the idealistic philosophers, or the "god" of the material universe that operated through natural laws known to science, religious sounding words were frequently used in a non-Christian context. Hitler had deep roots in the 19th century, a century of which many seem to be entirely oblivious in their attempts to understand Hitler. In addition, the 19th century saw an attempt to invent a new form of Christianity purged of its Jewish elements (meaning all of the Old Testament and most of the New). Invented largely by Houston Stewart Chamberlain (the Thomas Aquinas of German racism), but elaborated on by Nazi "thinkers" such as Alfred Rosenberg, this "German Christianity" or "Positive Christianity" fantasized about an Aryan Jesus whose father was a Roman soldier, or one of the imaginary Aryans alleged to have been occupying Galilee. This Jesus was a powerful fighting Jesus who died in the fight against Jewish capitalism. This is the "Positive Christianity" referred to in Point 24 of the Nazi Party Platform. Many comments about Christianity from this period need to be interpreted in this context. Mein Kampf also contains references to various gods and goddesses - proving, if his religious utterances mean anything, that he was a pagan. "The gods" are referred to in Book I chapters 3, 8, and 10 ("the manifestations of decay showed only that the gods had willed Austria's destruction. [I:3]), and there are references to goddesses as well: to the Goddess of Suffering (I:2) and the Goddess of Destiny (I:5). There is even a "goddess of eternal justice and inexorable retribution" which Hitler believed "caused Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the most mortal enemy of Austrian-Germanism, to fall by the bullets which he himself had helped to mold" (I:1). People who hunt through Mein Kampf looking for every scrap or hint that might possibly link Hitler to Christianity ignore these references because they are propagandizing, not researching. back to home