However this relationship became estranged with Heidegger's affiliation with Nazism, therefore Löwith had to emigrate from Germany in 1934 because of the Nazi regime.

[1] He went to Italy and in 1936 he went to Japan (as did figures like Emil Brunner [1889-1966]) where he lectured at Tohoku University, which had its own tradition of phenomenology.

Often called responses to "crisis", Christian intellectuals of this era, such as Karl Barth (Protestant), Florovsky (Orthodox), and Erich Przywara (Roman Catholic), attempted to articulate an understanding of Christian faith in response to the challenges of scientism, secularism, and skepticism.

"[4] The modern view is progressive, which is to say that it believes that the trajectory of history is moving towards a fulfillment in the bettering of the world by rational and technological means.

[5] Löwith traces the "regression" of history as opposed to a progression through famous western philosophers and historians.

[4] By this he means that a truly theological view of history is not movement to an immanent end, but a transcendent eschatological hope in the consummation of the world.

He writes, "The Christian hope is not a worldly desire and expectation that something will probably happen but a cast of mind based on an unconditional faith in God's redemptive purpose.

His analysis of the relationship between faith and the observable events of history is one of absolute disconnect, which is an idea he seems to adopt from Kierkegaard's similar argument in Practice in Christianity.