Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center.
Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members—professors of theology, bishops, and pastors—viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years.
The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought.
Susannah Heschel is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus and the editor of Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays of Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix A Note on Archival Sources xi
Acknowledgments xiii
List of Abbreviations xvii
INTRODUCTION: Theology and Race 1
CHAPTER I: Draining Jesus of Jewishness 26
CHAPTER II: The Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Infl uence on German Church Life, 1939 to 1942 67
CHAPTER III: Projects of the Institute 106
CHAPTER IV: The Making of Nazi Theologians 166
CHAPTER V: The Faculty of Theology at the University of Jena 201
CHAPTER VI: The Postwar Years 242
CONCLUSION: Crucifi ed or Resurrected: Institute Theology in Postwar Germany 279
Bibliography 291
Illustration Permissions 327
Index 329
Scriptural Citations Index 339
What People are Saying About This
Amy-Jill Levine
Susannah Heschel's fascinating, well-documented study not only reveals how and why German theologians during the Nazi period sought to dejudaize the church; it also exposes a perverted exegesis and theology that is still found, tragically, in pulpit, pew, and classroom. — Amy-Jill Levine, author of "The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus"
Bergen
Widely relevant, The Aryan Jesus is an erudite and thoughtful book based on a massive amount of work and a staggering amount of research. Heschel's sound scholarship makes a valuable and significant contribution to religion and theology, as well as history. This is an important book with a strong--even urgent--sense of purpose. — Doris L. Bergen, University of Toronto
From the Publisher
"Susannah Heschel's The Aryan Jesus is a brilliant and erudite investigation of the convergence between major trends in German Protestantism and Nazi racial anti-Semitism. By concentrating on the history of the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life, Heschel describes in forceful detail the Nazification of all aspects of Protestant theology, including the Aryanization of Jesus himself. This is a highly original and important contribution to our understanding of the Third Reich."—Saul Friedlander, University of California, Los Angeles"Susannah Heschel's fascinating, well-documented study not only reveals how and why German theologians during the Nazi period sought to dejudaize the church; it also exposes a perverted exegesis and theology that is still found, tragically, in pulpit, pew, and classroom."—Amy-Jill Levine, author of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus"Based on mostly unknown archival material, this pathbreaking book digs deep into the most sensitive areas of Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews. There can be no doubt that The Aryan Jesus will raise discussion and controversy, and receive a lot of attention."—Michael Brenner, University of Munich"Widely relevant, The Aryan Jesus is an erudite and thoughtful book based on a massive amount of work and a staggering amount of research. Heschel's sound scholarship makes a valuable and significant contribution to religion and theology, as well as history. This is an important book with a strong—even urgent—sense of purpose."—Doris L. Bergen, University of Toronto
Michael Brenner
Based on mostly unknown archival material, this pathbreaking book digs deep into the most sensitive areas of Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews. There can be no doubt that The Aryan Jesus will raise discussion and controversy, and receive a lot of attention. — Michael Brenner, University of Munich
Saul Friedlander
Susannah Heschel's The Aryan Jesus is a brilliant and erudite investigation of the convergence between major trends in German Protestantism and Nazi racial anti-Semitism. By concentrating on the history of the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life, Heschel describes in forceful detail the Nazification of all aspects of Protestant theology, including the Aryanization of Jesus himself. This is a highly original and important contribution to our understanding of the Third Reich. — Saul Friedlander, University of California, Los Angeles
