According to the author, Christianity offers a powerful system of rewards and incentives to create cultural uniformity. Those who do not join in this cultural uniformity become anathematized, oppressed, marginalized, and ultimately removed from the Christian circle of moral obligation. Using culture studies as a framework for analysis, Steele investigates the ways in which Christianity created cultural conditions based on a theology of violence and the use of sacred violence to foster behaviors that would lead to the involvement of millions of perpetrators and bystanders during the many...

Identifying elements of the Christian worldview that have influenced our theories of tragedy, Steele demonstrates how these theories fail when applied to Holocaust literature. The challenge of interpreting Holocaust literature is highlighted by a close investigation of the extent to which Christian thought, especially the view of transcendence, has permeated theories of interpretation. The author appeals for a new theory of tragedy which would allow an understanding of Holocaust literature without Christian interpretive biases. This book will be of interest to scholars of Holocaust...