A Dangerous Form of Belief: An Analysis of Alfred Rosenberg's Mythus of the Twentieth Century as an Example of a Modern Form of Religion
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Authors
Pauling, Blaine
Date
2005-09-13T19:20:02Z
Type
thesis
Language
en
Keyword
Religion , Nazism
Alternative Title
Abstract
This paper examines the thought of the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg as it is contained in his book, The Mythus of the Twentieth Century. I examine the spiritualized racism he describes in the Mythus as a distinctly modern form of religion. I do this by analyzing it according to three categories that I believe reflect the form of the modern consciousness: scientific naturalism, the culture of authenticity and self-conscious
narrative epistemology. I argue that although the tribalist ground of this religiosity is pre-modern in origin, it is nevertheless modern in its form. Rosenberg articulates and
understands his racist religion of the blood in a form that reflects the three categories that I take to be representative of modern consciousness. I conclude with a discussion of how
this form of religion or ‘spirituality’ is characteristic of modernity.
Description
Religious Studies Master's Essay 2005