Then the First World War broke out, and that changed everything. The Christian cultural consensus

was challenged. History was no longer perceived as a rational development, but as a chaotic process. Protestant theology held on to the view that God guides history, although it was obviously no longer rationally guided but happened chaotically. God’s will could therefore no longer be understood as a historical necessity, so instead the theologians emphasised the erratic in God’s will, God’s freedom, and placed God in opposition to the chaos of the world and world history.