From enemy to brother : the revolution in Catholic teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965 / John Connelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Connelly, John.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--Relations--Judaism.

Catholic Church.

Vatican Council--(2nd : 1962-1965 : Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano).

Vatican Council.

Christianity and antisemitism--History.

Christianity and antisemitism.

Judaism--Relations--Catholic Church.

Judaism.

Racism--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Racism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1965 the Second Vatican Council declared that God loves the Jews. Before that, the Church had taught for centuries that Jews were cursed by God and, in the 1940's, mostly kept silent as Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. How did an institution whose wisdom is said to be unchanging undertake one of the most enormous, yet undiscussed, ideological swings in modern history? The radical shift of Vatican II grew out of a buried history, a theological struggle in Central Europe in the years just before the Holocaust, when a small group of Catholic converts (especially former Jew Johannes Oesterreicher and former Protestant Karl Thieme) fought to keep Nazi racism from entering their newfound church. Through decades of engagement, extending from debates in academic journals, to popular education, to lobbying in the corridors of the Vatican, this unlikely duo overcame the most problematic aspect of Catholic history. Their success came not through appeals to morality but rather from a rediscovery of neglected portions of scripture. From Enemy to Brother illuminates the baffling silence of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust, showing how the ancient teaching of deicide-according to which the Jews were condemned to suffer until they turned to Christ-constituted the Church's only language to talk about the Jews. As he explores the process of theological change, John Connelly moves from the speechless Vatican to those Catholics who endeavored to find a new language to speak to the Jews on the eve of, and in the shadow of, the Holocaust.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

1. The Problem of Catholic Racism

2. The Race Question

3. German Volk and Christian Reich

4. Catholics against Racism and Antisemitism

5. Conspiring to Make the Vatican Speak

6. Conversion in the Shadow of Auschwitz

7. Who Are the Jews?

8. The Second Vatican Council

9. A Particular Mission for the Jews

Notes. Acknowledgments. Index

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674064881

0674064887

9780674068469

0674068467

OCLC:

794004234