On the podcast this week, Dr Alec Ryrie, Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University, talks about his latest book, The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It, an examination of society’s fixation with the Nazis and the unravelling of the post-war moral consensus today.
He argues that Adolf Hitler has replaced Jesus as the most important moral figure in the West (“we’ve replaced a positive exemplar who shows us what good is with a negative exemplar who shows us what evil is”), and how this has influenced thinking about human rights.
Professor Ryrie wishes to hold on to the moral insights of the “Age of Hitler”, but argues that “they are not enough, and, at the moment, we are asking them to carry more weight than they can bear.” He challenges each side of the culture wars “to find a synthesis with the other”, saying that this is the only way in which each side “can truly secure the values which are most dear to them”.
Professor Ryrie’s previous books include Protestants (Books, 28 July 2017) and Unbelievers: An emotional history of doubt (Books, 15 May 2020).
The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It by Alec Ryrie is published by Reaktion Books at £15.95 (Church Times Bookshop £14.36); 978-1-83639-082-4.
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