Christian Science Under the Nazi Regime

Stillman, William E., Christian Science Under the Nazi Regime, Principia College Support Center, Elsah, Illinois, 1977, 19 pages.

Stillman’s 1977 talk at Principia College focused on Nazi reactions to Christian Science in Germany. Even though many Christian Scientists “swarmed to join the Nazi Party” (4), changing Nazi rules put the faith in jeopardy, along with all other non-German organizations. The prominence of Christian Science in both diplomatic leadership and British and American society was a reason the church was tolerated and not banned before the war. In 1934, soon after Hitler’s rise to power, there were seventy-six churches and fifty thousand adherents in Germany. Stillman quoted undocumented Nazi intelligence reports describing Christian Science as “one of the largest and most dangerous of the international sects,” and “the only foreign religion, or for that matter the only foreign organization, that was operating freely in Germany” (13, 16). However, Christian Science was associated with foreign leadership and English language influence; and Nazis noted Eddy’s support of the Masonic Order which Stillman claimed had a history of Jewish influence. By1936 the church periodicals were forbidden. In 1939 membership in the Nazi Party was denied to church members. In 1941, church activities were officially banned, which Stillman claimed was a demonstration of “the spiritual importance of Christian Science” (9) being a threat to Nazi Germany.

See also annotation:

Island of Peace in an Ocean of Unrest: The Letters of Dorothy von Moltke by Catherine R. Hammond