Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 5
The shift to German rationalist “higher criticism” (Bible as “human documents,” trusting “human reason” over the supernatural) is presented as a key step toward collapse; what view of God’s authority and speech is at stake in that shift, and how does a community’s theology quietly determine what it will or won’t resist politically?
Another way to ask: What changes when people start treating the Bible as mostly human words and trusting human reason more than God’s power? How can a church’s beliefs quietly decide what it will or won’t stand up to in politics?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
According to the speaker, the shift puts human reason above God’s supernatural authority, which quietly removes the theological foundation needed to resist state demands like Nazism.
- He says German Mennonites “adopted the ideas of Julius Wellhausen… and Friedrich Schleiermacher,” described as “German rationalist scholars.”
- He defines their “higher criticism” as claiming “the Bible was a sublime collection of human documents,” and that “human reason was to be trusted, not the supernatural claims of the Bible.”
- He frames the issue as ultimate authority: “it’s man versus God, who is the ultimate source of authority.”
- He warns that losing a culture’s “philosophic center” changes “the whole superstructure of culture and even each person's notion of who he or she is.”
- He connects theology to political resistance: with leaders trained in Lutheran/Baptist settings that encouraged “church-state cooperation,” Mennonites were “left without a substantial theological foundation for resisting Nazism.”