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 instances of extreme violence used against the Other over the centuries. As the original Disconfirming Other in the Christian cultural world, Jews often served as the primary target. Thus, there was a system of definitions, rewards, incentives, and victims already in place when the Nazis came to power. Calling for a re-evaluation of the cultural practices and values that have developed within Christianity over time, this important new book helps account for the phenomenon of the Nazi perpetrators and bystanders during the Holocaust.

Framing the Holocaust as a late but logical development in a long series of violent responses by Christianity to the Other--those who stand outside the Christian world, either by geographical accident, religious tradition, or some other factor--the author attempts to show how the Holocaust, while not a specifically Christian event, was nevertheless sanctioned and conditioned by other events in the history of Christianity. Using culture studies to frame his analysis, Steele focuses on historical antecedents that help account for the apathy of bystanders and point to the preexistence of a moral framework supporting and empowering the perpetrators of the Holocaust. This unique perspective concludes that the Nazis invented almost nothing with regard to the Shoah, and that, instead, a long-standing insistence on cultural hegemony played a much bigger role in the attempted destruction of the Jewish community.

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 literature, religion, and literary criticism.

Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz, Joe Montana and Tim Brown, all the great coaches and players of the Sound Bend gridiron are featured in this must-have book for all real fans of the blue and gold--newly updated! The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the most popular and celebrated team in college football. They have the second-most victories of all time, eleven national titles, featured seven Heisman Trophy recipients including Paul Hornung and Tim Brown, and won eighteen bowl games. Its storied tradition is celebrated in Miracle Moments in Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football History. Michael R. Steele brings to life many of the Irish's greatest moments, including Knute Rockne's "Four Horsemen" in the 1920s, the epic scoreless tie with powerful Army in 1946, their incredible comeback led by Joe Montana in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, Lou Holtz's 1988 national championship team that ended Miami's thirty-six-game regular-season winning streak in stunning fashion, and much more.