Editorial [ Contemporary Church History Quarterly. Vol.18.No.1, March 2012]

Abstract

This issue of our quarterly journal marks the beginning of its third year in its new format. As an independent venture, not funded by anybody, our aim is to provide you, our readers, with evaluations of new publications in the field of contemporary church history, i.e. from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Our aim is to do this as soon after publication as possible in order to assist your teaching and research. Our team of a dozen editors is drawn from both Europe and North America. Our mandate is to be both ecumenical and international. Because most of us began with an interest in Germany, the affairs of the German churches are frequently examined. But, at least in some sense, this is not fortuitous. For the German churches, Catholic, Protestant and Free Churches, provided striking examples of the perils and dangers for Christian witness during Germany’s subjection to two rival totalitarian systems in the past century. That is why we welcome our Berlin colleague, Manfred Gailus’ review of Martin Greschat’s survey of Protestantism in the Cold War, and Mark Ruff’s comment on the recent article by Olaf Blaschke on the Roman Catholic Kommission für Zeitgeschichte (Commission for Contemporary History). At the same time we ask you to note the positive steps taken to improve Catholic-Jewish relations, as recorded in the collected speeches of Pope John Paul II. We also bring you notice of some other aspects of Vatican diplomacy.