In this masterful book, Ryan Buesnel offers a timely critique of overly-enthusiastic contextual theology, by exploring perhaps its most infamous example, the Deutsche Christen movement of Nazi Germany. Refusing the perversion of the German Christians' conclusions, yet refusing also to dismiss them as self-evident heretics, Buesnel instead demonstrates how earnestly they grounded their theology in a contextual pneumatology, that leant into a longer tradition of German religion, and the national experiences of decline and rebirth. In an age of increasingly prominent – and influential – Christian nationalisms, Buesnel's case-study speaks a powerful word of warning to both the theological academy, and today's church, in equal measure.

Mark R. Lindsay, University of Divinity, Melbourne

This is a deeply unsettling study of how theological language can be bent toward destructive cultural and political ends. Buesnel's searching analysis sheds new light on the theological mechanisms by which National Socialism was interpreted as revelation and renewal. The book deserves wide attention, both as a contribution to the history of modern theology and as a warning about the dangers of confusing the Holy Spirit with the spirit of the age.

Ben Myers, Alphacrucis University College