christianity and antisemitism

In this provocative book, Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer analyze the lies, misperceptions, and myths about Jews and Judaism that antisemites have propagated throughout the centuries. The book examines ancient and medieval myths central to the history of antisemitism: Jews as "Christ-killers," instruments of Satan, and ritual murderers of Christian children. It also explores the scapegoating of Jews in the modern world as conspirators bent on world domination; extortionists who manufactured the Holocaust as a hoax designed to gain reparation payments from Germany; and the leaders of the slave trade that put Africa in chains. No other book has focused its attention exclusively on a thematic discussion of historic and contemporary antisemitic myths, covering such an expansive scope of time, and allowing for such a painstaking level of exemplification.

Foreword / Dorothee Solle -- Confronting the Holocaust -- A Christian Passes Through Yad Vashem / Michael McGarry -- What Does the Holocaust Have to do with Christianity? / John K. Roth -- Hard Questions Asked by the Holocaust / David A. Rausch -- Chronology, 1932-1998 / Carol Rittner, Stephen D. Smith -- Antisemitism -- Two Thousand Years of Jewish Life in Europe by 1935 Map -- What is Antisemitism? / Carol Rittner, John K. Roth -- Comparison of Canonical Law and Nazi Anti-Jewish Measures Table -- Indifference to the Plight of the Jews During the Holocaust / Carol Rittner, John K. Roth -- The Churches and Nazi Persecution -- The German Churches in the Third Reich / Franklin H. Littell -- Collusion, Resistance, Silence: Protestants and the Holocaust / Doris L. Bergen -- The Role of the Churches: Compliance and Confrontation / Victoria J. Barnett -- The Response of the German Catholic Church to National Socialism / Michael Phayer -- Ludwig Muller Biography -- Martin Niemoller Biography -- Responses Outside The Mainstream Catholic and Protestant Traditions / Christine King -- A Mosaic of Victims: What About Non-Jewish Victims of the Nazis? / Michael Berenbaum -- The Reaction of the Churches in Nazi-Occupied Europe -- The Catholic Church in Poland and the Holocaust, 1939-1945 / Dariusz Libionka -- The Response of the Polish Church to the Holocaust / John T. Pawlikowski -- The Catholic Hierarchy in France During the War and the Persecution of the Jews / Renee Bedarida -- Leon Berard Biography -- French Protestant Churches and the Persecution of the Jews in France / Michael R. Marrus -- Jules-Gerard Saliege Biography -- The Dutch Protestants, the Third Reich and the Persecution of the Jews / Ger van Roon -- Denmark and the Holocaust / Carol Rittner -- Bulgaria and the Holocaust / Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr. -- The Churches and the Deportation and Persecution of Jews in Slovakia / Livia Rothkirchen -- The Christian Churches and the Persecution of Jews in the Occupied Territories of the USSR / Yitzhak Arad -- Andrei Szeptyckyi Biography -- Jozef Tiso Biography -- Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Evil: Difficult Questions on the Perpetrators / Dan Bar-On -- 'In the Interest of Maintaining Military Discipline...' The Massacre of Children in Byelaya Tserkov, Military Chaplains and the Wehrmacht Letters -- The Vatican, the Pope, and the Persecution of the Jews -- Understanding the Vatican During the Nazi Period / Michael R. Marrus -- Who Was Pius XII? / Eugene J. Fisher -- Pius XII and the Holocaust / Jonathan Gorsky -- The Vatican and the Holocaust / John T. Pawlikowski -- The Case of Pius XII: Christians and Jews in Confrontation / Albert H. Friedlander -- The Challenge of the Exception -- A Glimmer of Light / Nechama Tec -- The Memory of Goodness / Eva Fleischner -- Rescuers: Their Motives and Morals / David P. Gushee -- Metropolitan Chrysostomos Biography -- Le Chambon-sur-Lignon Biography -- Msgr. Angelo Rotta Biography -- Sister Margit Slachta Biography -- Antonina Sivak Biography -- Mother Maria Skobtsova Biography -- Zegota Biography -- Comelia Ten Boom Biography -- Righteous Among the Nations Table -- After the Holocaust: How Have Christians Responded? -- After the Shoah: Christian Statements of Contrition / Peggy Obrecht -- How Have the Churches Responded to the Holocaust? / Eugene J. Fisher -- Protestant Responses to the Holocaust / Stephen R. Haynes -- In Search of Tikkun / Marcia Sachs Littell -- Challenges for Theological Training / Isabel Wollaston -- Holocaust Education in American Catholic Colleges and Universities / Michael Phayer, Carol Rittner -- Journey to Poland: Remembrance and Reconciliation, A Personal Reflection / Margaret Shepherd -- Where Memories Meet / Stephen D. Smith -- On Christian Mission to the Jews / Hubert G. Locke -- Christian Preaching after the Holocaust: Only Good Things Can Follow / Harry James Cargas -- Encountering the New Testament / Gareth Lloyd Jones -- Reading Contents: New Testament Texts / Jane Clements -- Flashpoints of Catholic-Jewish Relations / A. James Rudin -- The Canonization of Pius XII / John T. Pawlikowski -- Edith Stein's Canonization: Acknowledging Objections from Jews and Catholics / Eloise Rosenblatt -- The Dilemma of Forgiveness / Alice L. Eckardt -- Christians in a World of Genocide / Franklin H. Littell -- Is there a Future for Christianity? / Stephen D. Smith.

Argues that Pope Pius XII was not in league with Adolf Hitler, but that Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, was Hitler's staunch ally and a promoter of the Holocaust.

Chronicles the Church's two-thousand-year-old battle against Judaism.

Investigates the actions of the Catholic Church and of individual Catholics during the Holocaust, from the emergence of Hitler in 1930 until the Church's official rejection of antisemitism in 1965.

Examines the historical influences that led up to the Holocaust, showing that German anti-Semitism was not just a product of Nazi fanaticism, but was born of a racist ideology that has its roots in the Napoleonic era.

Walter Laqueur, former director of the Wiener Library in London, offers a comprehensive history of antisemitism from ancient times to the present.

Contains ten essays in which the authors present a wide range of viewpoints about the issue of anti-Semitism; and includes a bibliography and an annotated list of relevant organizations.