PREFACE
What do the events in the spiritual and religious world that are taking place before our eyes mean? What are the backgrounds to the tremendous upheavals we are witnessing? What forces were at work in the past to bring about those tremendous tensions in the spiritual struggle of the present, into whose force field we have been drawn? Where will development ultimately lead? What is in store for us in the near future in the global struggle between different worldviews and religious systems?
These are questions that move every thoughtful person in our turbulent times — questions that this book not only attempts to answer, but to which it provides answers of rare clarity and persuasiveness, the answer par excellence. The god-gifted author has been given a view of world, spiritual and church-historical developments that is second to none. From time immemorial the most astute thinkers and researchers have endeavored to lift the veil that has spread over many events in world and church history, apparently shrouding them in impenetrable darkness. They almost never got beyond the most contradictory assumptions. On the other hand, with this presentation of world and church-historical developments, we have a book in our hands that really sheds light on the background, that gives us insights into spiritual and religious connections that lie beyond all human speculation.
What is particularly surprising is that this condensed representation of the inner course of church history, which dates back to the end of the last century, has lost none of its originality and luminosity even today. More recent research and the most recent findings may have thrown additional light on the events described; however, the sharply drawn lines of the vision of this book have been confirmed up to our own day and, through recent developments, have proved to be prophetic, so to speak. It was precisely this fact that prompted the publisher to re-edit the work in response to popular demand, after it had had a beneficial effect in the meantime through translations into many other languages.
So may this book, which over the years has won many friends at home and abroad, also in its new form, open the eyes of the people of our time to the meaning of all the events that often assail them in such a confusing and frightening way , and give them the strength and courage to steer unperturbed through all the storms of the present and future towards the goal that is worth every struggle and every sacrifice!
The publisher