The Cross & the Swastika
Roberto Rivera on Christianity & Anti-Semitism
“What Would Jesus Have Done?” was the question posed by a cover story in The New Republic in January 2001. In it, Daniel Goldhagen continued the argument he first made in his book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: that for at least two centuries prior to Hitler, the German people were in the thrall of what he calls “exterminationist anti-Semitism.” Thus, Hitler’s contribution to the Holocaust did not consist so much in creating a murderous ideology as in providing the means for the German people to do what they had always wanted to do.
And at the heart of this “exterminationist anti-Semitism” was Christianity. As Goldhagen writes, “[It is important] for us to focus on the Christian churches when trying to understand the nature of anti-Semitism in Germany during the Nazi period.”
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Roberto Rivera is a Fellow at the Wilberforce Forum at Prison Fellowship. His work has appeared in Books & Culture, and he is also a regular contributor to the web magazine Boundless. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on ecumenism from the online archives
31.4—July/August 2018
Labels & the Ecumenism of Discipleship by James M. Kushiner
more from the online archives
32.4—July/August 2019
Does Biblical Language for Man Matter? by Stephen F. Noll
28.1—January/February 2015
on State Impositions & Church Acquiescence by Stephen Baskerville
18.2—March 2005
On Conservatism as Vexation, Vanity & Near Impossibility by Graeme Hunter
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
