Between Humanist Philosophy and Apocalyptic Theology: The Twentieth Century Sojourn of Samuel Štefan Osuský

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Samuel Stefan Osusky was a leading intellectual in Slovak Lutheranism and a bishop in his church. In 1937 he delivered a prescient lecture to the assembled clergy, “The Philosophy of Fascism, Bolshevism and Hitlerism”, that clearly foretold the dark days ahead. As wartime bishop, he co-authored a “Pastoral Letter on the Jewish Question”, which publicly decried the deportation of Jews to Poland in 1942; in 1944 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo for giving moral support to the Slovak National Uprising against the fascist puppet regime. Paul R. Hinlicky traces the intellectual journey with ethical idealism's faith in the progressive theology of history that ended in dismay and disillusionment at the revolutionary pretensions of Marxism-Leninism. Hinlicky shows Osusky's dramatic rediscovery of the apocalyptic “the mother of Christian theology”, and his input into the discussion of the dialectic of faith and reason after rationalism and fundamentalism. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents A Very Personal Preface Introduction Problems in Remembering Osuský Life, Works and the Plan of This Book 1. From Dissent under Imperialism to Nation-building Imperialism, Nationalism and Western Christianity Prophetic Protest: War and Religion (1916) The History of Religion (1922) and the Legacy of Liberal Theology A Fundamentalist Challenge Defence of the Truth (1946): Ethical Idealism’s Last Hurrah 2. Resistance to Fascism and the Turn to the Bible The Hlinka Slovak People’s Party and Fascism ‘The Philosophy of Fascism, Bolshevism and Hitlerism’ (1937) Interventions in 1939 upon the Formation of the Slovak Republic The 1942 ‘Pastoral Letter on the Jewish Question’ Defence of the Truth (1946): A Vindication of Protestantism as the True Christianity 3. Speaking from the Scriptures to a World at War The End of the World (1941) The Mystery of the Cross (1943) Defence of the Truth (1946): Discerning True Christianity 4. Biblical Theology in Samizdat Problems in Interpreting the Gallery Persona non grata and the Failure of Apologetics A Reading of the Gallery of New Testament Figures An Equally Personal Conclusion Works Cited Index