The Collegiality of Evil: The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich, edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Robert P. Ericksen.

Description

The article focuses on the academic environment at Tübingen University, Germany, during the Third Reich, exploring how Christian scholars supported anti-Semitism. Topics include the legacy of scholars like Gerhard Kittel; Adolf Schlatter's theological conservatism; Tübingen network's emotional regime; scholars' connection to Nazi ideology; the role of academia in perpetuating prejudice; and the need for critical examination of historical legacies in academic disciplines like biblical studies.

My first response was fascinated horror and then a burning need to know more… This new interdisciplinary volume, The Betrayal of the Humanities, while building on a current of recent scholarship, contains material that makes it especially relevant for members of the Society of Biblical Literature who specialize in the historical humanities, including Hebrew Bible, Assyriology, Egyptology, early Christianity, and rabbinics. It covers issues known to few scholars of religion, myself included. Today more than ever it is crucial for people to study such works, given the renewed attractions of authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and Christian nationalism in many countries.

—Lindbeck, Kristen. 2023. “The Collegiality of Evil.” Review article of The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich, edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Robert P. Ericksen.  Review of Biblical Literature 25 (2023): 19–28.