The Oberammergau Passion Play: A Lance Against Civilization

xxvii, 270 pp. People of Oberammergau have received highest praise for their fidelity through 350 years. But Friedman asks questions that must be addressed: Can the traditional text be reconciled with the Gospels? Does the play generate harmful, stereotypic images of Jews? Is the Passion truly a 'hymn of reconciliation' or is it, as Nietzsche said of Wagner's Meistersinger, a 'lance against civilization'?