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Anti-Judaism is opposition to the Jewish religion (Judaism) and those who practice it. This opposition may be of varying degrees of intensity — sometimes expressed in discrimination and hostility. Often the term is used as a euphemism for anti-Semitism.
The definition of "antisemitism" in Merriam-Webster Dictionary includes anti-Judaism: "is hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group."Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Anti-Semitism According to this definition anti-Judaism is a specific form of anti-Semitism.
Christian anti-Judaism
Christian anti-Judaism is a Christian theological position denigrating Jewish belief and practice. It emerged out of the schism between early Christian "Judaizers" —those who insisted that in order to be Christian one must first become Jewish and observe Jewish laws and religious practices such as circumcision, and "universalizers"—those who insisted that the nascent faith was open to everyone. Anti-Judaism was adopted by early Christian theologians to distinguish themselves from their Jewish kin.
Anti-Judaism is sometimes distinguished from antisemitism based upon racial or ethnic grounds. "The dividing line was the possibility of effective conversion . . . a Jew ceased to be a Jew upon baptism." However, with racial antisemitism, "Now the assimilated Jew was still a Jew, even after baptism ... . From the Enlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews... Once Jews have been emancipated and secular thinking makes its appearance, without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear."Nichols, William: Christian Antisemitism, A History of Hate (1993) p.314
History of Christian anti-Judaism
The fact that the vast majority of first century Jews did not believe Jesus was the Messiah, nor the claims of his followers that he was God, led to the eventual parting of the ways between Christians and Jews. "To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable."Johnson, Paul: A History of the Jews (1987), p.144The Jewish/Christian debate and dialogue moved from polemic to bitter verbal and written attacks one against the other. St. Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho the JewDialogue with Trypho the Jew was a polemical debate giving the Christian assertions for the Messiahship of Jesus especially by making use of Jewish Scripture (the Old Testament). In the Dialogue, Justin makes use of a fictional figure called Trypho on which to construct his apologetic arguments (a traditional rhetorical and literary device in the ancient world, finding its origins in Socratic philosophy). This Dialogue is one of the first apologetic works in the early Church to address Judaism.
St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (4th/5th century) is equally negative in his treatment of Judaism, though much more hyperbolic in expression.Saint John Chrysostom: Eight Homilies Against the Jews While St. Justin's Dialogue is a philosophical treatise, St. Chrysostom's eight homilies Against the Judaizers are a more informal and rhetorically forceful set of sermons preached in church. Delivered while Chrysostom was still a priest in Antioch, his homilies deliver a scathing critique of Jewish religious and civil life. The primary scholarly explanation for this was that he wished to warn Christians not to have any contact with Judaism because of the attraction that some Christians felt towards the synagogue, and his purpose was not primarily to attack the Jews, but rather to keep Christians away from the rival religion's festivals, apparently an ongoing pastoral problem in Antioch. Additionally, it was common during that period to make use of an exaggerated straw man argument in order to make one's point.
Martin Luther has been accused of anti-Semitism, primarily in relation to his statements about Jews in his book On the Jews and their Lies, which describes the Jews in extremely harsh terms, excoriating them, and providing detailed recommendation for a pogrom against them and their permanent oppression and/or expulsion. According to Paul Johnson, it "may be termed the first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the Holocaust."Johnson, Paul: A History of the Jews (1987), p.242 In contrast, Roland Bainton, noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote "One could wish that Luther had died before ever this tract was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial"Bainton, Roland: Here I Stand, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, New American Library, 1983), p. 297. See also Martin Luther and the Jews.
At several points in the history of Christianity, Chrysostom and Luther's writings have been used to justify anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, whatever their original intentions may have been. Contemporary examples include the 1980 statement by Bailey Smith (then-president of the Southern Baptist Convention) that "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew," and Baptist minister and televangelist Jerry Falwell's assertion in his book, Listen, America!, that Jews "are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior."
Elsewhere in Christianity, efforts have been made to counteract the effects of anti-Judaism, especially as many Christian leaders seek to have an ecumenical rapport with their Jewish counterparts.
Notes
See also
- Christianity and anti-Semitism
- Christian opposition to anti-Semitism
- Schisms among the Jews
- Islam and anti-Semitism
- History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
- Criticism of Judaism
External links
- Was St. John Chrysostom Anti-Semitic?
- Anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism?
- The Gospel of John and Christian Anti-Judaism
Ancient Roman Christianity | Anti-Semitism | Jewish Christian topics
"Anti-Judaism"