Defense Preaching in War - Karl Holl's Sermons during and after the First World War

Eight sermons, which were delivered by Karl Holl between 1917 and 1923 in academic services in Berlin's Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedachtniskirche, are addressed in the following article. Dr. Andrea Hoffmann discusses the general characteristics of sermons during World War I and outlines how Holl applied the insights gained by his extensive research on Luther since 1917 on parish work. Hereby, he focused on the perception of the defeat in World War I as a judgement of God necessarily entailing new negotiations of the relationship between God and humanity. Although Holl's sermons and the ones of his contemporaries had many features in common, his reference to Luther's concept of justification - indicating the so called,Lutherrenaissance' - was distinctive.