Invitation to the Psychohistory Forum
Work-in-Progress Meeting
Topic: “Christian Anti-Semitism in Academia: The Legacy of Nazi Theologian Emanuel Hirsch.”
September 21, 2024 (Saturday)
10:00am-1:00pm EDT (room opens at 9:30am EDT)
Presenter: Constance L. Benson, M.Div., M.Phil.
Virtual Participation via Zoom.
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In this work-in-progress Psychohistory Forum meeting, Constance L. Benson will present on Christian Anti-Semitism in Academia: The Legacy of Nazi Theologians Emanuel Hirsch and Ernst Haenchen.
Constance L. Benson, who completed her Master’s degree at Harvard, is looking to receive help in developing the psychoanalytic and psychobiographical aspects of her research subjects. She is presenting in the light of antisemitism’s current resurgence in Europe and America, as well as the continuing influence of Nazi Theologian Emanuel Hirsch (1888-1972), who was an influential theologian who refused Nazification after WWII. He was a National Socialist Party member and enthusiastic Hitler supporter who was a leader of the Nazi branch of German Protestantism. This paper surveys Hirsch’s ideas and legacy as well as those of his acolyte Ernst Haenchen.
As is customary in psychohistorical research, the presenter will begin with her relationship with the subject matter. Benson is a fourth generation descendent of Baptist clergy. Her study of Biblical languages and literature at Harvard Divinity School convinced her that the fundamentalist belief system she inherited was untenable. For example, she learned to understand Jesus in his Jewish context and to read both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures in their original historical contexts. Her initial research was eventually published by a peer reviewed press under the title God and Caesar, with a foreword by Cornel West.