Item Detail
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11958
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3
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0
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English
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Render Unto Caesar : State, Identity and Minority Churches in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1989
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State University of New York at Buffalo
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Ph.D. diss.
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'This dissertation examines and compares the experiences of four religious organizations in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1945/1989: the Evangelical Methodist Church, the Baptist Church (Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden), the Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It argues that despite their small size and limited influence, these four minority churches suffered less from the secularization and pressures of the regime, due to aspects of their theology, identity, and community, than did the larger churches, the Evangelical Lutheran and Catholic churches. It also argues that the various ways in which the minority churches approached their relationship with the state illustrate both the problems associated with conformity, and the difficulty of living a religious life in a religiously repressive East Germany. This is accomplished by examining four major aspects of East German society that directly influenced GDR religious community, including the four minority churches in this study. Chapters one and two evaluate the relationship between church and state in East Germany, with chapter one relating the general religious policies of the state as reflected in its dealings with the largest church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church (EK), and chapter two focusing on the relationship between the state and the four minority churches. Chapter three examines the issues of mandatory military service and the peace movements in the GDR and how they affected religion and the minority churches. Chapter four is a discussion of the economic relationship between the churches and the state, with a focus on a 'special building program with foreign currency'called the Valuta-Sonderbauprogramm. Chapter five looks at the relationship between the East German secret police (Stasi) and the churches, and describes how the atmosphere of fear created by the Stasi influenced the religious community and minority churches. The final chapter of the dissertation describes how the state, by creating policies aimed at secularizing and marginalizing religious adherents, became the most influential factor in the creation of individual and collective identity among members of the minority churches.' (author's abstract)