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4 - Church Fathers and Antisemitism from the 2nd Century through Augustine (end of 450 CE)

from Part I - The Classical Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

By
Joshua Garroway
Edited by
Steven Katz
Steven Katz
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Summary

This chapter examines antagonism toward Jews and Judaism as expressed by leading Church Fathers in the West. Particular attention is paid to the novel and influential perspective of Augustine.

Keywords

Adversus IudaeosAmbroseAugustineTertullian
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Antisemitism , pp. 66 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Barnes, T. D., Tertullian: A Historical and Literary Study, rev. ed. (New York, 1985). The place to begin serious study of Tertullian.Google Scholar
Cohen, J., Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity (Berkeley, CA, 1999). An appraisal of Augustine’s theology of Judaism and its influence on medieval Christianity, arguing that the witness doctrine reached maturity only late in Augustine’s career.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Efroymson, D. P., “The Patristic Connection,” in Antisemitism and the Foundations of Christianity, ed. Davies, A. (New York, 1979). An early attempt to situate patristic anti-Judaism within debates over heresy, concentrating on Tertullian’s response to Marcion.Google Scholar
Fredriksen, P., Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism (New Haven, CT, 2010). The benchmark in recent appraisals of Augustine’s positive estimation of Jews and Judaism shifted the focus of the field from Augustine’s Adversus Iudaeos to his Against Faustus. A symposium dedicated to this book appears in Augustinian Studies 40, no. 2 (2009), 279–99.Google Scholar
Lee, G. W., “Israel between the Two Cities: Augustine’s Theology of the Jews and Judaism.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 24.4 (2016), 523–51. A recent treatment focusing on The City of God and arguing that Augustine’s estimation of Jews and Judaism was not quite as positive as others have supposed.Google Scholar
Ruether, R. R., Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (New York, 1974). The influential study contending that anti-Judaism was an integral component in early Christian theology.Google Scholar
Simon, M., Verus Israel: A Study of the Relations between Christians and Jews in the Roman Empire, AD 135–425, trans. H. McKeating (Portland, OR, 1986). The locus classicus for the “conflict theory.” Published in the wake of the Holocaust, Simon seeks to defang the Adversus Iudaeos tradition by locating its origin in Christian competition with a vibrant Judaism.Google Scholar
Stroumsa, G. G., “From Anti-Judaism to Antisemitism in Early Christianity?,” in Contra Judaeos: Ancient and Medieval Polemics between Christians and Jews, ed. Limor, O. and Stroumsa, G. G. (Tübingen, 1996). An attempt to situate Adversus Iudaeos literature not in conflict or Christian discourse, but in the demise of paganism in the fourth century.Google Scholar
Swift, L. J., “St. Ambrose on Violence and War,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 101 (1970), 533–43. A classic study that examines Ambrose’s complicated view of violence, including analysis of the Callinicum affair.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M., Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity: A Critique of the Scholarly Consensus (Leiden, 1995). A refutation of the “conflict theory” on both historical and ethical grounds.Google Scholar
Unterseher, L. A., The Mark of Cain and the Jews: Augustine’s Theology of Jews and Judaism (Piscataway, NJ, 2009). An analysis of Augustine’s witness doctrine with specific emphasis on the interpretation of Cain.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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