Confronting Authoritarianism: Some Lessons From the Barmen Declaration

ABSTRACT The Theological Declaration of Barmen, adopted by the German Confessing Church in 1934, offered a theological response to the authoritarian and totalitarian threats of the Nazi government in the first years of the Third Reich. As such, it can serve as a resource for thinking theologically about what it means to be the church in our own time of increasing authoritarianism in the United States and elsewhere. Most significantly, the Barmen Declaration's forceful denunciation of the idolatry of leader, state, and ideology, coupled with its insistence on the Reformation principle of solus Christus , reminds Christians of where their ultimate loyalties must lie. At the same time, the Barmen Declaration's silence on the Nazis’ persecution of the Jewish people is a stark reminder of the limitations of Barmen, calling churches and Christians in our present moment to stand in solidarity with all those who are targeted, dehumanized, and persecuted by the state. This article explores the context and the arguments of the Barmen Declaration, its foundations in Luther's Two Kingdoms doctrine, and additional resources within the Lutheran tradition for going “with Barmen beyond Barmen” to rise to the challenges of our own moment of crisis.