Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center.

Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College's Eli Black professor of Jewish Studies, an award-winning author, and the daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel will present this lecture. Sponsored by The Kripke Center for the Study of Religion, Project Interfaith and the Institute for Holocaust Education. Presented at Creighton University on April 23, 2013 presented on this podcast with permission of Leonard J. Greenspoon, BA, PhD Theology Professor College of Arts and Sciences organizer of the presentation.