Christianity between Tolerance and Violence

In his book “Toleranz und Gewalt” Arnold Angenendt takes up the controversies of recent historical accusations against Christianity. The list of charges contains a huge set of ‘mortal sins’ such as: body and gender hostility, unsubstantiated feelings of guilt, a claim for the truth of faith – and thus intolerance, the acknowledgement of the crusaders as assistants to the murder of innocent Muslims, the Inquisition and its torturing and burning of “heretics” and “witches”, the mission understood as a “colonial war”. Finally, the general treatment of the Jews (anti-Judaism) is believed to be the precursor to the Holocaust. Hence, Christianity is said to have left a “blood trail” of nine million victims in history. On a broad factual basis, Angenendt confidently presents what religious, cultural and general historical research of the last twenty years has revealed about those accusations. The results are remarkable.

Literature: Angenendt, Arnold: Toleranz und Gewalt. Das Christentum zwischen Bibel und Schwert, Münster: Aschendorff, 7th edition 2014.