Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism - Hardcover

Fredriksen, Paula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385502702 ISBN 13: 9780385502702

Publisher: Doubleday Religion, 2008

Synopsis

This provocative book traces the social and intellectual forces that led to the development of Christian anti-Judaism and shows how and why Augustine challenged this toxic tradition.

In Augustine and the Jews, Paula Fredriksen draws us into the life, times, and thought of Augustine of Hippo (396–430). Focusing on the period of astounding creativity that led to his new understanding of Paul and to his great classic The Confessions, Fredriksen shows how Augustine’s struggle to read the Bible led him to a new theological vision, one that countered the anti-Judaism not only of his Manichaean opponents but also of his own church. The Christian empire, Augustine held, was right to ban paganism and to coerce heretics. But the source of ancient Jewish scripture and current Jewish practice, he argued, was the very same as that of the New Testament and of the church—namely, God himself. Accordingly, he urged, the Jews were to be left alone. Conceived as a vividly original way to defend Christian ideas about Jesus and about the Old Testament, Augustine’s theological innovation survived the demise of the western Roman Empire, and it ultimately served to protect Jewish lives against the brutality of the medieval crusades.

Augustine and the Jewssheds new light on the origins of anti-Semitism and, through Augustine, opens a path toward better understanding between two of the world’s great religions.

About this title

About the Author

PAULA FREDRIKSEN is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture in the Department of Religion at Boston University. Besides Augustine on Romans, her translation of Augustine’s early works on Paul, she has authored From Jesus to Christ, which was the basis of a popular Frontline documentary, and Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, which won a 1999 National Jewish Book Award. She and her husband live in Boston and Jerusalem.

Reviews

A recognized scholar of the historical Jesus, Fredriksen (Aurelio Professor of Scripture, Boston Univ.; From Jesus to Christ) explores Augustine of Hippo's journey into his own particular understanding of Scripture and of the place of Judaism in the Christian world. She particularly focuses on Augustine's commentaries on Paul's letters, the Psalms, and recorded disputations with the Manicheans whom he had once embraced. Over time, Augustine (354–430) arrived at his ideas of a just God and of human freedom, which in turn led to his teaching that Jews, divinely chosen, were necessary witnesses in the development of Christianity. The author draws especially on Augustine's Confessions and City of God and also references writings of contemporaries such as Ambrose and Jerome. She points out that despite the early development of anti-Judaism in the rhetoric of the day, the populations of urban Mediterranean cities intermingled socially, with Jews practicing their religious traditions, holding civil office, etc. Featuring textual analysis of a very high caliber and an extensive bibliography, this worthy contribution to the literature on Augustine is recommended for scholarly and religion collections.—Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In this densely argued and exhaustive book, religion professor Fredriksen (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) does for Augustine what she has already done so brilliantly for the historical Jesus. Drawing primarily on Augustine's Confessions and on his little-studied treatise, Against Faustus, she recreates the religious and political tensions of late fourth-century Christianity in North Africa and its attempts to understand its relationship to Judaism. While many early Christian writers condemned Jews as killers of Christ, Augustine turned the rhetorical tables on such polemic. As Fredriksen elegantly contends, Augustine argued that the Jews should be exempt from Christian persecution. Since the religious practices of the Jews devolved from God the Father—the same God Christians worshipped who was also the source of Jewish scriptures, tradition and practice—therefore God and the Jews, and thus the church and the Jews, maintain an abiding relationship. Contrary to many traditional interpretations, Fredriksen's deeply nuanced study demonstrates that the bishop of Hippo's later writings forcefully challenge the anti-Jewish tendencies of much of early Christianity and offer fresh ways of thinking about contemporary dialogue between the two religions. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

For readers who regard Christianity as the prime incubator of anti-Semitism, St. Augustine remains a great riddle. Fredriksen probes that riddle, searching for the reasons this prominent exponent of the Christian gospel unexpectedly parted company with contemporary Christian leaders by arguing for official tolerance of Judaism. Readers retrace the torturous path Augustine traveled on his way to Christian baptism, noting particularly how deeply he imbibed from pagan philosophy and mythology and how he developed an exceptionally sophisticated perspective on a Hellenistic world filled with ethnically exclusive deities. From that perspective, the brilliant theologian reinterpreted key passages of both the Old and New Testaments as evidence that God intended the Jews to remain a separate and singular people. In stark contrast to his unwieldy hostility to Christian heretics, Augustine’s efforts to carve out a realm of religious autonomy for Jews profoundly affected his overall understanding of how God effects his will within salvific history, so shaping the very foundations of Christian orthodoxy. A formidable work of cultural archaeology. --Bryce Christensen

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Religion
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385502702
• ISBN 13: 9780385502702
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 512