Criminal history of Christianity

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The criminal history of Christianity is the ten-volume main work by the writer and church critic Karlheinz Deschner . It describes in detail misconducts that the various Christian churches , denominations , sects , special societies and their representatives as well as Christian rulers are accused of in the course of the history of Christianity. The work encompasses church history from its biblical origins to the 18th century. The first volume was published in 1986, the final tenth in 2013.

Partial or complete translations of the extensive, over 5000-page work have been published in Italian, Spanish, Greek, Polish and Russian.

Goal setting

In his introduction to the complete works, which preceded the first volume, Deschner described his intention and began with what you will not find in his work : the answer to the question, "What is Christianity good for?" In the sense of the sentence Audiatur et altera pars (" You can also hear the other side ”) he wants to create a counterweight to the gigantic preponderance of the existing glorifications of Christianity. Nor does he want to report anything about the supposed or, for once, really positive consequences of Christianity . He wants to show, however, that the advocates of a first moral instance failed to meet their ideal not only partially, but constantly. Deschner foresees the main point of criticism of his work here, namely the one-sidedness of the selection of facts, and meets him with a clear demarcation. The aim is not just a history of the churches, but a representation of all (also non-church) manifestations of Christianity. These would be measured not only against the general concepts of the criminal, the human, but also against the central ethical thoughts of the synoptics , against the Christian self-image as a religion of good news , love , peace , [...] but also against the disregarded demands of the later Church, like the prohibition of military service, first for all Christians, then for the clergy ; Ban on simony , interest , usury and other things more.

With this deliberately provocative attack on conservative and apologetic church historiography, Deschner caused a sensation and, in some cases, resistance. The facts that he has compiled and extensively documented are largely undisputed. However, their selection, interpretations and polemical exaggerations are often criticized.

Volume 1: The early days

After 16 years of preparatory work, this first part of the volume was published, depicting the emergence and rise of Christianity to the state religion of Rome .

He begins with a look at the Old Testament . Deschner describes the conquest of the Israelites after the crumbling Egyptian rule in Palestine in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. And the destruction of the Canaanite city-state system. This entry, which does not directly concern Christianity, but rather ancient Judaism , represents the relationship between religious claims and the politics of violence: Deschner sees this as the origin of a tradition of holy war , in which Christians later also committed numerous mass murders in the name of the God of Israel . He describes the many death penalties the Torah provided for religious offenses, King David's policy of conquest , the rule and corruption of priests, and finally the fall of the State of Israel in Roman times.

Only this downfall made the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire possible, since Christians could now see themselves as the true Israel of God . Christian anti-Judaism begins in the New Testament (see anti-Judaism in the New Testament ) and continues with the reinterpretation of the church as the new Israel. With the help of selected quotations, Deschner assigned the church teachers Ephraem , Johannes Chrysostomus , Hieronymus and Hilarius von Poitiers anti-Semitism.

According to Deschner , the church fathers are also said to have hounded against heretics and false believers . Deschner only protects Origen , whom he counts among the most noble Christians of all . A whole chapter is devoted to the attack on paganism . He then analyzes the persecution of Christians in the mirror of the sometimes exaggerated martyr legends from church history as well as the retrospective Christian view of the pagan emperors. Deschner also takes a look at the first important opponents of Christianity , Celsus and Porphyrios .

According to Deschner, Emperor Constantine I transformed "the church of the pacifists into the church of the field priests" . Deschner sees in the abandonment of the central pacifist values ​​of pre-Constantinian Christianity "a bankruptcy of the Jesus doctrine" . Deschner also describes Konstantin's work in the fight against Jews, "heretics" and pagans . The Kingdom of Armenia , which was the first state in the world (in the year 301) to make Christianity the state religion, is not spared from Deschner's criticism, in that he states that this "began with a violent persecution of the pagans" .

Deschner writes about Emperor Julian that he "surpasses his Christian predecessors in every respect: character, ethical, spiritual" . Deschner comments on Julian's attempt to legitimize the pagan religions again as follows:

“ Perhaps, who knows, a non-Christian world would have plunged into as many wars - although the non-Christian world has fought fewer wars than the Christian for seventeen centuries! Difficult to imagine, but in a pagan world: all the hypocrisy of the Christian. And it is even more difficult to imagine their religious intolerance. "

- Kriminalgeschichte vol. 1, p. 317 and passim

Deschner's assessment of the church fathers Athanasius , Ambrosius and Augustine concludes the volume . Deschner accuses Athanasius of “unscrupulousness” , “striving for prestige and power” . Ambrosius is, in Deschner's words, “a fanatical enemy of Jews” . Thanks to his church politics, “unyielding and intolerant, but not so direct; more accomplished, more supple ” , he is said to be “ a role model for the church to this day ” (p. 400 and passim). Finally, Augustine, who “put patriotism above the love of the father for his son” (p. 520), sanctioned the “just war” as well as the “holy war” .

Volume 2: Late Antiquity

  • The late antiquity. From the Catholic "child emperors" to the extermination of the Arian Vandals and Ostrogoths under Justinian I (527-565). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-498-01277-0 ; Paperback, ibid. 1996, ISBN 3-499-60142-7 .

Deschner writes that the "conditions like in ancient Rome" are characteristic of the conditions of the Roman Church. The cruelties of Christian shepherds in late antiquity are often glossed over and concealed by church historians to this day.

Volume 3: The Old Church

In contrast to the other volumes, which proceed chronologically, Deschner proceeds according to what are known as crime focal points, which he identifies in the following areas:

  • Christian counterfeiting
  • The miracle and reliquary fraud
  • The pilgrimage industry
  • The dumbing down and ruin of ancient education
  • The Christian destruction of books and the destruction of paganism
  • The preservation and consolidation of slavery
  • The double-faced social doctrine and the actual social policy of the large church

Volume 4: Early Middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages, Byzantium split off, the war against Islam began, and the popes in Rome became powerful rulers. Deschner considers Pope Gregory I to be a man of double morality, who repeatedly preaches repentance and the approaching end of the world, but himself spreads his power at all costs, for which he recommends dungeons, torture, hostage-taking and looting, but also to deal with bribery know. The Donation of Constantine called Deschner the greatest forgery in world history. At the end of the volume, Charlemagne is accused of opportunistic relations with the popes, his extremely bloody “sword mission” to the Saxons and his destruction of the Lombards and Avar empires.

Volume 5: 9th and 10th centuries

The volume is a replica of Deschner on the anthology Criminalization of Christianity? and an editorial on it by Hermann Gieselbusch, editor at Rowohlt- Verlag.

In the 9th and 10th centuries, according to Deschner, there is an intimate entanglement of secular and ecclesiastical power. Spiritual principalities arise, the military service of the high clergy flourishes. Under the Ottonians , the Church in the Holy Roman Empire is completely militarized; Dioceses and abbeys have significant military potential. Popes also go to war: Leo IV in the sea ​​battle of Ostia in 849 , John X in the battle of Garigliano in 915 . Popes excommunicate each other, some are thrown into dungeons, strangled, mutilated, poisoned. Sergius III. has two killed at once. In chap. 3 deals with the pseudoisidorical decretals , which are described as the most important forgery of the Carolingian period (Dawson).

Volume 6: The 11th and 12th Centuries

  • The 11th and 12th centuries. From Emperor Heinrich II, the “Saint” (1102), to the end of the Third Crusade (1192). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1999, ISBN 3-498-01309-2 ; Paperback, ibid. 2001, ISBN 3-499-61131-7 .

This volume deals with Emperor Heinrich II the Holy, who, allied with pagans, wages three wars against Catholic Poland, the momentous pontificate of Gregory VII , an "aggressive Satan" who leads to the victory of the Holy See over the imperial throne in the investiture dispute ( Canossa ), the schism with the Eastern Church, the First Crusade with the massacre of all inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as the Second and Third Crusade .

Volume 7: The 13th and 14th Centuries

  • The 13th and 14th centuries. From Emperor Heinrich VI. (1190) to Emperor Ludwig IV. The Bavaria (1347). Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-498-01320-3 ; Paperback, ibid. 2003, ISBN 3-499-61511-8 .

Deschner writes about the Staufer Emperor Heinrich VI. who wanted world domination even without a papal blessing, and about the most powerful pope in history, Innocent III. During the period described, crusades fall in all directions, including the Fourth Crusade , the Crusade of Frederick II and the Crusades of Louis IX. to Egypt and Tunis, the grotesque children's crusade , the crusades of Christians against Christians, the Sicilian Vespers , the annihilation of the Templars , the extermination of the heathen in the northeast, the Christian murder of the Jews and, last but not least, the totalitarian Inquisition , which was supposed to suppress any movement of liberal spirits.

Volume 8: The 15th and 16th Centuries

  • The 15th and 16th centuries. From the exile of the popes in Avignon to the peace of religion in Augsburg. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3-498-01323-8 ; Paperback, ibid. 2006, ISBN 3-499-61670-X .

Deschner describes the beginning of the witch hunt , the occidental schism , the renaissance popes, the struggle against the inner-Christian opposition ( Wycliff , Hus and the Council of Constance , Luther and the Peasants' War ).

In 2005, volumes 1 to 8 were published on CD-ROM: Directmedia, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89853-532-0 .

Volume 9: mid-16th to early 18th century

Volume 9 deals with the following topics in detail:

Volume 10: 18th Century and Outlook for the Following Period

More than a quarter of a century after the first volume was published, Deschner was able to complete this work: The 10th and last volume of the crime story was published on March 8, 2013. It deals with:

reception

The reactions to Deschner's series were mixed. Not only the press, but also science dealt with his work. Some church historians dedicated a three-day symposium to the first three volumes of Deschner's crime story at the beginning of October 1992 . In addition to Deschner himself, Hans Reinhard Seeliger invited 22 specialists, among others, for church history, patrology , ancient history , archeology and law to the Catholic Academy in Schwerte . The presentations of the symposium appeared in 1993 as an anthology with the title, under the motto of the meeting itself: Criminalization of Christianity? Karlheinz Deschner's church history put to the test . Deschner declined to participate on the grounds that he had already given sufficient information on the fundamental questions of his work in the foreword to the first volume. He decided, as an example of the report of Emperor Constantine, a great one in history? by Maria R.-Alföldi in a reply that precedes the text of the fifth volume. He skipped the other presentations at the symposium. Hermann Gieselbusch, editor at Rowohlt-Verlag, pointed out at the same point that only a few of the symposium participants “at least abstained from personal disparagement”, naming four speakers, Ulrich Faust , Theofried Baumeister , Erich Feldmann and Gert Haendler , for theirs Fairness in Deschner's name thanked.

literature

  • Hans Reinhard Seeliger (Ed.): Criminalization of Christianity? Karlheinz Deschner's church history put to the test. Symposium of the Catholic Academy Schwerte from 1. – 3. October 1992. Herder , Freiburg im Breisgau 1993 (2nd, reviewed and improved edition 1994), ISBN 3-451-23222-7 .
  • Clara and Paul Reinsdorf: God's masterminds. The churches on the march into the 21st century. Alibri , Aschaffenburg 1995, ISBN 3-9804386-2-7 .
  • Hubert Mania: Subject indexes and person indexes on Karlheinz Dreschner: "Kriminalgeschichte des Christianentums", Volumes 1 to 10 . Rowohlt-Taschenbuch, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-499-63055-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the more recent historical research, however, it is emphasized that Constantine hardly took action against the traditional cults or the Jews, but certainly against Christian heretics. Cf. for example Bruno Bleckmann : Constantine the Great . Reinbek 1996.