Other scholars argue that, even if his views were merely anti-Judaic—that is, opposed to Judaism and its adherence rather than the Jews as an ethnic group—their violence lent a new element to the standard Christian suspicion of Judaism. Ronald Berger writes that Luther is credited with "Germanizing the Christian critique of Judaism and establishing anti-Semitism as a key element of German culture and national identity." Paul Rose argues that he caused a "hysterical and demonizing mentality" about Jews to enter German thought and discourse, a mentality that might otherwise have been absent. Christopher J. Probst in his book Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (2012), shows that a large number of German Lutheran clergy and theologians during the Nazi Third Reich used Luther's hostile publications towards the Jews and their Jewish religion to justify at least in part the anti-Semitic policies of the National Socialists.
Who thinks that Luther added antisemitism as a cultural element to Germany?
Ronald Berger Ronald Berger Berger