Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play

by JamesShapiro (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.25

  According to local legend, in 1632 the Bavarian village of Oberammergau was threatened by an outbreak of plague and desperate villagers vowed to perform a Passion Play every ten years if God would spare them. From that day on, plague claimed no more victims in Oberammergau. The Oberammergau Passion Play provides a lens through which to view some of the conflicts that have dominated European culture: the Thirty Years War, the Counter-Reformation, the two World Wars and, most significantly, the Holocaust. Whilst the play has fiercely reseisted challenges to its traditions over the years, it has not been able to resist the charge of anti-Semitism. When the play is performed in 2000 in front of four million visitors it will be unlike any other Passion Play. It has been grudgingly but dramatically revised - the Jews will no longer be to blame for the killing of Christ. The author of this work uses the Oberammergau passion play to view fierce cultural, historical and religious tensions.