Shepherds of the Empire: Germany's Conservative Protestant Leadership 1888-1919

The late nineteenth century was a time of rapid industrialization, mass politicization, and modern philosophy. The resulting political and cultural upheaval confronted the German protestant church with deep questions of identity.Shepherds of the Empire engages timeless questions of identity and faith through the time-bound work of four key thinkers from the Wilhelmine period and their eventual failure to carve a middle way for the German parish clergy.