Videos

A series of films about the church and the Nazis, based on newly processed home movies, never shown before, of Germany’s most prominent Christian leaders of the 1930s. James Luther Adams, professor emeritus of Christian ethics, and George Huntston Williams, professor emeritus of church history, recount their personal remembrances of these influential leaders and discuss the dynamics of that turbulent period.

No Authority but from God – Volume 1 (28 minutes). See below to view this video.
Personal reflections of both pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi church leaders. Includes Martin Niemöller, Reichbishop Ludwig Muller, Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Barth, and underground Confessing Church ministers and seminarians.

Religion Under Hitler – Volume 2 (26 minutes)
Germany’s churches in the 1930s. The responses of Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Liberals to the rise of Hitler; analyses of how Hitler appealed to religious people; why the churches did not resist more; and what would have been an adequate theology.

Liberalism and the Barmen Declaration in Nazi Germany – Volume 3 (26 minutes)
The use of concepts of natural law by Liberals and Catholics and of confessional theology by Protestant Neo-Orthodox thinkers to resist Nazi ideology. The multiple definitions of “liberalism” — biblical, theological, political, and economic.

Adams original home movies, which provides some of the original footage shown in these have been digitized and can be viewed online through Andover-Harvard Theological Library, via this link.

The James Luther Adams Foundation is currently working to have all of the Adams Tapes digitized and available for online viewing through Andover-Harvard Theological Library. Check back for updates. You can also contact JLAF for information.