“Defender of the West”: Henri Massis against Spengler, Hitler and Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 235-245
Author(s):  
Vasily E. Molodiakov
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The West ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Political Philosopher ◽  
Charles Maurras ◽  
European Civilization ◽  
Oswald Spengler

This article analyzes the position on German civilization and different political regimes in Germany of the French conservative political philosopher Henri Massis (1886-1970). Catholic and French nationalist, follower of Maurice Barrès and Charles Maurras, Massis during all his life remained a Germanophobe and saw Germany, as well as Russia, not belonging to European civilization and being a dangerous enemies of the “West”. According to Massis ‘the West’ was limited to the Roman-Catholic part of Europe with France in the center, as the inheritor of Hellenized Christian Rome. Massis considered that civilization as the sole ‘authentic’ one. For many years Massis critisized the views of Oswald Spengler as representative of the “catastrophic theory of history” and precursor of national socialism.

Oswald Spengler and the Decline of the West

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
David Engels
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Racial Theory ◽  
Second World ◽  
Oswald Spengler

This chapter discusses the life and work of Oswald Spengler, whose fame is based on his The Decline of the West, a monumental historical study that endeavored to show that all human civilizations live through similar phases of evolution. Spengler also dabbled with politics and attempted, in a series of essays, to promote the idea of a conservative renaissance in Germany. The rise of National Socialism put Spengler in a situation of ideological opposition and, after he criticized the regime because of its racial theory and its populism, made him a persona non grata until his death in 1937. After the Second World War, Spengler’s elitism and expectation of a German-dominated Europe dominated the reception of his work. This somewhat masked the complexity of his thought, which prefigures such modern debates as the criticism of technology, ecological issues, interreligious questions, the rise of Asia, and prehistoric human evolution.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-190
Author(s):  
Heather L. Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The West ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
Publicity Campaign ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
European Civilization

This chapter assesses the significance of the Russian Orthodox's publicity campaign in Paris. It explains how the Orthodox publicists found sympathy in some quarters and successfully initiated a reappraisal of Russian church–state relations in the West. It also discusses the sense of historical destiny that spurred further efforts to enhance Orthodoxy's global visibility and prestige. The chapter illustrates imperial Russia and its church that were seen as threats to European civilization from the standpoint of liberalism and Roman Catholicism. It mentions the joint agreement signed by Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis in February 2016 that suggests an alignment of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches on many issues.

scholarly journals Cyclical theories of social change: Spengler and Toynbee

Sociologija ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-312
Author(s):  
Dragoljub Kaurin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
The West ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Cycles ◽  
Proper Unit ◽  
Oswald Spengler

This paper is centrally concerned with discussing critically and rethinking the theoretical concepts put forward by Oswald Spengler in Decline of the West and Arnold Toynbee in A Study of History. It focuses on the theoretical, heuristic and epistemological value of these theories in the era of renaissance of philosophic history in some quarters (see for example Graham, 2002) and cooperation between social sciences. Spengler is credited with the idea of historical cycles, rethinking of the progressivist view and discovering a radically different approach to the study of the human past, which is embodied in his idea of culture as the proper unit for historical and sociological study. However, some of his views proved to be intrinsically intellectually dubious, but on the whole, his was a major contribution to the study of social change. Arnold Toynbee on the other hand was more empirically and sociologically oriented, while Spengler?s views are more heavily philosophical. Toynbee partly developed his ideas rather consistently, but at the same time included many unclear and inaccurate points in his theory. Both authors can be rightfully considered to be classical authors in this field and both provided incentive for studies that cross-cut social sciences (philosophy, history, sociology). Moreover, Decline of the West and A Study of History are truly post-disciplinary works.

1680–1682: Everything Is Difficult

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Mark Walczynski
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
New France ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
The West ◽  
Illinois Country ◽  
The People

This chapter examines the arrival of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, at Kaskaskia. Of the Roman Catholic religious orders that labored in New France during the time of La Salle, the Jesuits were the most influential. With the Jesuits now situated as sole representative to King and Cross at Kaskaskia, and by extension the Illinois Country, Claude-Jean Allouez and his Jesuit associates were prepared to do whatever was necessary to keep secular influences away from the lands and the people whose souls the order worked so diligently to save. This included turning the Illinois Indians against La Salle. Without the support of the Illinois, there was little chance that La Salle's enterprise could succeed, because the explorer's royal patent permitted him to trade only in bison hides, and the Illinois were bison hunters. In addition, it appears that Allouez was prepared to turn Native American against Native American. The chapter then considers why the Iroquois attacked the Illinois at Kaskaskia, and what the implications were for La Salle and French policy in the West.

5. Forbidden reading

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Belinda Jack
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Intellectual Freedom ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Censorship, book burnings, and secret reading highlight the relationship between reading and power, and hence the relationship between limiting access to reading and political control. But from the very beginning there have been dissidents who refused to give up the intellectual freedom provided by their reading in the face of despotic regimes. ‘Forbidden reading’ considers the history of book burnings undertaken by repressive political regimes, religious authorities, and maverick leaders. It also discusses the Inquisitions and indexes of banned books first led by the Roman Catholic Church, but then later by other religions. Finally, it looks at different forms of censorship, including press censorship during times of war, censorship of ‘undesirable’ content, and self-censorship.

Spengler, Oswald (1880–1936)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Silas Peterson
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
High School Teacher ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
The West ◽  
Oswald Spengler

Oswald Spengler was a prominent historian in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). From 1908 to 1911, he worked as a high school teacher in Hamburg. Thereafter he worked as an independent author in Munich. His The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes, 1918, 1922) provided an important impetus for cultural analysis in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany.

Fascism versus Totalitarianism: Ernst Nolte's Views Reexamined

1971 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-284
Author(s):  
Carl J. Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
European History ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Italian Fascism ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Charles Maurras ◽  
Sharp Criticism

Ernst Nolte, Professor of History at Marburg University, challenged the attention of all students of recent European history as well as specialists on totalitarian dictatorship some years ago by a new and intersting interpretation in his Der Faschismus in seiner Epoche (1963). In it he undertook to see the Action Française group of Charles Maurras and his friends, Fascism, and National Socialism as cut from the same cloth.It was a view based upon a strong emphasis on the ideological features of these movements, rather than their conduct of politics. Like all syntheses, it encountered sharp criticism by specialists in the three national histories and cultures, with their vested interests in their particular specialties. I myself considered it a very valuable contribution, having always stressed the kinship of Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, in conduct as well as ideology—in opposition to Hannah Arendt, who inclined to an ideal-typical restriction of the notion of totalitarianism to Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia on the ground that “the essence of totalitarianism is total terror”; this has always seemed to me like restricting the concept of absolute monarchy to Louis XIV and Peter the Great.

Red/green colour defect among the Roman Catholic and non-denominational population

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Cobb
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Schools ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The West ◽  
Green Colour ◽  
Vision Defect ◽  
Roman Catholics

SummaryPupils in schools in the Glasgow area show incidences of colour vision defect higher in the Roman Catholic schools than in the non-denominational. This may be due to the Celtic origins of Roman Catholics in the West of Scotland.

National-Socialism and the Roman Catholic Church

1939 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
W. E. Reid ◽  
Nathaniel Micklem
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church
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