Overview

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.

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9781009314978

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Reviews

'Whether Hitler's invocations of Jesus were a reflection of his personal religious beliefs, as Mikael Nilsson eloquently argues in Christianity in Hitler's Ideology, or whether they were transactional powerful political and propaganda tools of a political religion meant to inspire his followers and would-be supporters, as I contend, Nilsson's book is a great work of scholarship. It forces all of us to rethink the role Christianity played both for Hitler and for National Socialism more broadly.' Thomas Weber, University of Aberdeen and Hoover Institution, Stanford University '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

Author Information

Mikael Nilsson is an independent Swedish scholar and historian with research interests in Hitler, National Socialism, and Nazi Germany, along with the Cold War. His previous publications include Hitler Redux: The Incredible History of Hitler's So-Called Table Talks (2020).

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