Holy (1948), a collection of essays, expressed support for ecumenism. Evaluation Krieg describes Adam as both "one of the most creative theologians of the early twentieth century" and, due to his support for Nazism, "one of the most naive". Krieg argues that Adam played a significant role in the renewal of Catholic theology in the first half of the 20th century, but weakened Christian resistance to Hitler by stressing the perceived common ground uniting Nazism and Catholicism. Krieg identifies Adam's pessimistic evaluation of Western civilisation as the fatal flaw in his thought, which led him to seek accommodation with Nazism. Adam's theory of history, Krieg argues, was insufficiently complex and failed to consider the capacity of the church and tradition to adapt. Krieg argues that, although Adam anticipated insights of the Second Vatican Council in his account of Christ's humanity and the church as a community, he remained within the horizon of the First Vatican Council in his rejection of modern ideas of freedom. Krieg suggests that Adam's life and work provides a lesson in the impossibility of "turn[ing] back the clock in order to restore the relationship that existed between the Church and the state in an earlier epoch." Adam's theology also provides a positive lesson, however, in Krieg's view, insofar as Adam in The Spirit of Catholicism acknowledged that the church would have to adapt to non-European cultures and to diversify. James Carroll described Adam as "perhaps the most notable Catholic theologian of his generation" and identified this eminence as the reason why Adam's position on Nazism is significant. Writing in Commonweal in 2008, John Connelly argued that Adam's engagement with Nazism indicates "the dangers of speculation, of making judgments about the fulfillment of God's will in history." Connelly also described Adam as "the rare theologian who made the presence of God seem tangible", identifying this as a reason why Adam ought not to be forgotten. List of works "Faith and the Scholarly Study of Faith in Catholicism" (1920) The Spirit of Catholicism (1924) Christ our Brother (1927) Christ and the Western Mind (1928) The Son of God (1933) "Jesus, the Christ, and We Germans" (1943) One and Holy (1948) The Christ of Faith (1954) See also Religion in Nazi Germany Citations Sources Further reading External links 1876 births 1966 deaths 20th-century German Catholic theologians 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests German male non-fiction writers Ludwig Maximilian University of