Jewish Studies in the Service of Nazi Ideology: Tübingen's Faculty of Theology as a Center for Antisemitic Research
In “The Betrayal of Christian Theology: Tübingen as a Center for Antisemitic Research,” Anders Gerdmar investigates how Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen became a seedbed for the theological and political legitimation of antisemitism during the Third Reich. Several scholars from Tübingen stood a...
| Summary: | In “The Betrayal of Christian Theology: Tübingen as a Center for Antisemitic Research,” Anders Gerdmar investigates how Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen became a seedbed for the theological and political legitimation of antisemitism during the Third Reich. Several scholars from Tübingen stood at the forefront of Protestant National Socialist theology. The two most famous of them are Gerhard Kittel (1888–1948) and Walter Grundmann (1906–1976), but also noteworthy are Adolf Schlatter (1852–1938), Paul Althaus (1888–1966), and Karl Georg Kuhn (1906–1976). Gerdmar argues that this group of scholars, influenced especially by the charismatic personality of Schlatter, used theology to legitimate a set of political ideas that proved decisive in the role that Tübingen would play. The scholars associated with the Tübingen research tradition shared several defining characteristics, chief of which was their philological expertise in Jewish studies, ironically used to show the dangers of Judaism. In addition, they held a theologically conservative perspective, drew upon Schlatter’s theology to advance antisemitic and racial claims, espoused antimodernism and national chauvinism, and, to varying degrees, they all embraced the National Socialist state. Gerdmar’s chapter demonstrates that through their research and in their roles as educators of future ministers and teachers in Germany’s churches and schools, this network of scholars became instrumental for German theological antisemitism |
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| ISBN: | 0253060796 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The betrayal of the humanities
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