The way of imagination

       If a prescient Christian in Germany in the early 1930’s had wished to write a book to warn her countrymen of the horrors about to be unleashed on both her nation and the world through the actions of the new Chancellor (Hitler), what kind of book might she have written?   Perhaps this concerned citizen would have composed a story imbued with biblical imagery, with references to famous examples of past tyrants and the judgments that these perpetrators of injustice had experienced as a consequence of their pride?   Perhaps such a book – if it had any hope of avoiding being censored – might not name its subject directly, but may rather have described current events in a way both cryptic enough to fly under the radar of the regime and accessible enough to the astute reader to effectively communicate its subversive message.   Perhaps this anti-totalitarian tome would use vivid language which would oblige receptive readers to look at their daily reality in a new (and frightening) way?