The Politics of Conversion: Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia, 1728-1941Missionaries are people who operate on the border between their own community and another. The confessional frontier between the Christian and the Jewish communities in Prussia offers a privileged vantage-point from which to analyse the relationship between them. This is the first study tomake comprehensive use of the archives and publications of the various Prussian institutions and societies which set out to convert Jews to Christianity. No other body of documentary evidence presents as informed and sustained a commentary on the 'Jewish Question' as it evolved in Prussia duringthe period covered by this book. Spanning over two centuries of protestant missionary activity, this book examines the ways in which theological, social, and racial themes intertwined in the relationship between the Christian majority in Prussia and the Jewish minority in its midst. This studysheds light on a facet of Jewish-German history which has been overshadowed by the ultimate tragedy of the Holocaust. |
Contents
List of Abbreviations | 1 |
The Origins of the Pietist | 9 |
Pietists and Jews in EighteenthCentury Prussia | 33 |
The Missionary Revival | 83 |
Missions to the Jews in Prussia 18221870 | 124 |
Missionaries and Methods | 176 |
Mission Church and State | 212 |
Missionary Practice and Ideology 18711918 | 242 |
Epilogue | 282 |
Bibliography | 304 |
Index | 333 |
Copyright | |