"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 every since Adolf Hitler praised its portrayal of "the whole muck and mire of Jewry.""--BOOK JACKET.