Christianity in Hitler's Ideology
The Role of Jesus in National Socialism

This ambitious study analyses Hitler's ideological relationship to Jesus and reconsiders the core beliefs of National Socialism.

Mikael Nilsson (Author)

9781009314954, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 June 2024

290 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.499 kg

'Christianity in Hitler's Ideology is a necessary and very timely exploration of a question which is still being hotly contested: namely, the place of Christian thought and feeling in the Nazi movement. In an era of a reemergent global fascism which openly proclaims itself the champion of religious values, Nilsson's book is a welcome addition.' Richard Steigmann-Gall, Kent State University

How did Hitler's personal religious beliefs help to shape the development of National Socialism? Through close analysis of primary sources, Mikael Nilsson argues that Hitler's admiration of Jesus was central in both his public and private life, playing a key role throughout his entire political career. Christianity in Hitler's Ideology reexamines the roots of National Socialism, exploring how antisemitic forms of Christian nationalism de-Judaized Jesus and rendered him as an Aryan. In turn, the study analyses how Hitler's religious and ideological teachers such as Völkisch-Christian writers Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Dietrich Eckart weaponised these ideas. Nilsson challenges the established understanding that Hitler only used religion as a tool of propaganda. Instead, it is argued that religious faith and deeply held convictions were at the core of National Socialism, its racism, the Second World War, and the Holocaust.

Introduction
1. Christ on the crooked cross
Part I. Jesus as an Aryan, Anti-Semitic Warrior: 2. Hitler's religious teachers: Dietrich Eckart & Houston Stewart chamberlain
3. Christ on the crooked cross
Part II. Did Hitler Believe that Jesus was Divine: 4. Hitler's Damascus Road experience: how Hitler modelled his political conversion narrative in Mein Kampf on the apostle Paul's religious conversion in acts 9
5. Jesus as an ideological inspiration for Hitler and the NSDAP
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]