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

Shapiro, James

3.54

84 ratings by Goodreads

9780375409264: Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375409262 ISBN 13: 9780375409264

Publisher: Pantheon, 2000

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A fascinating portrait of a German village and the millennial production of its controversial Passion play, which has been staged once in each decade since 1634.

In the summer of 2000, a half-million spectators from around the world will once again descend upon the small Bavarian village of Oberammergau, which despite wars, military occupation, religious censorship, and threats of boycott, has continued to honor its ancestral vow to stage the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus once every ten years.

In this wide-ranging cultural history, James Shapiro discusses the traditions and troubles of Oberammergau, from the legendary origins of its Passion play in the seventeenth century to the villagers' current--and ambivalent--efforts to rid their play of anti-Semitism, a charge that has stuck ever since Adolf Hitler praised its portrayal of "the whole muck and mire of Jewry."

Shapiro illuminates the ways in which the Oberammergau Passion play has become a litmus test of tradition, interfaith dialogue, and the role of spectacle in reawakening belief. His book also reveals how Oberammergau has become a remarkable prism through which we can view divergent ways of thinking about culture, commerce, and religion.

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Review:

In 1633, the residents of the small Bavarian village of Oberammergau made a vow that, if they were spared from a plague that was sweeping the countryside, they would perform a Passion play in perpetuity. Legend has it that no more villagers died; and the town has famously kept its vow. Every decade for centuries, the people of Oberammergau have presented their play. As described by theatrical historian James Shapiro, Oberammergau is a fascinating cultural, commercial, and religious saga. The book is sharpest in its analysis of the villagers' ambivalent efforts to rid their play of anti-Semitism. (Hitler, who attended the play twice, praised its convincing portrayal of "the menace of Jewry.") Recent revisions in the play's text, as well as casting and costume changes, have restored an historically accurate, Hebrew quality to Jesus and the other major characters in the drama. James Shapiro, who spent a great deal of time in the village gathering material for this book, observes in detail the anxieties and scandals that attended these changes--as well as the empathy and understanding that they occasioned. --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Publisher:

"James Shapiro has written an utterly fascinating account of a phenomenon that is at once ephemeral and eternal--a once-a-decade drama saddled with centuries of passion. With scholarly ingenuity and journalistic wits, he dissects an event that has, as Shapiro himself writes, 'profound implications for interfaith relations in a post-Holocaust world.' This book will go down as a model of cultural commentary--and a treasure."
-- Stephen J. Dubner, author of Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family

"Oberammergau is an obsessively readable treatment of this vexed subject, the drama which serves as such a perfect metaphor for the anguished and complex problem of Christian anti-Semitism. Professor Shapiro speaks with a scholar's authority, but with none of the obfuscation that such scholarship often entails. He sheds a most welcome light on this dark and murky terrain."
-- Mary Gordon

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