Bishop Mack B. and Rose Stokes Professor of Theological Ethics Timothy P. Jackson has published a new book. Mordecai Would Not Bow Down: Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Christian Supersessionism (Oxford University Press) draws on ethics, theology, art, and literature to explore how the ideological conflict between Nazis and the Jewish people was an important causal factor in the Holocaust.
In the book, Jackson contends that society consistently misrepresents the Holocaust as a purely irrational phenomenon—a perspective that risks minimizing the threat that anti-Semitism continues to pose.
Through his analysis of the ideological clash between Nazism and Judaism, Jackson reveals the ways in which Christianity was complicit in the Holocaust, particularly the role of Supersessionism. In addition, he argues that Jewish teachings about the importance of caring for the weak and vulnerable overtly contradicted the Nazis’ desire for power and enjoyment of cruelty, which further fueled their anti-Semitism.