How Dispensational Thought Corrects Luther's View of Israel (original) (raw)
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Alon Goshen-Gottstein deserves kudos for reassessing Luther's legacy for Jew and Christian. He has pried open new vistas of negotiating inter-religious differences. Most importantly, he has alerted us to the twin trap of religious triumphalism and delegitimation. For those of us on the precipice, it is precisely the awareness of the trap, both religiously and politically, that keeps us from falling into the chasm below. In this review, I have thus pushed the theopolitical dimensions in exploring alternative ways of conceptualizing primarily a Jewish-Christian partnership and secondarily the Jewish-Christian-Muslim one under the Abrahamic umbrella while pointing out some of the pitfalls. The first is the importance of the doctrine of Jewish election in accounting for Christian antisemitism as well as that of Islam, Nazism, and possibly Soviet Communism. The second is the suggestion of using the changing relationship between Britain and America as a model for that between Judaism and Christianity. For the relationship between Judaism and the sister faiths of Islam and Christianity, I have suggested also the models of the Aleinu prayer and that of Abraham. This is accompanied with an understanding of religious pluralism that allows for this development. We are all indebted to this unusual and courageous book for prodding and provoking more thinking on the complexities, possibilities, and pitfalls of the fluctuating relationship of Judaism, Christianity, and others.
The Protestant Reformers and the Jews: Excavating Contexts, Unearthing Logic
Religions, 2017
This article highlights the important initial tasks of excavating the pertinent contexts of the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers and discerning what is at stake for them (i.e., "unearthing logic") in order to analyze their views of and teachings about Jews and Judaism. Pertinent contexts include the immediate contexts to which Luther and Calvin responded (e.g., Jewish "blasphemy" and/or Christian Hebraism), as well as attending to the significant theological frameworks in which they each operated. Equally important is activity of sifting through the discrepancies in the secondary literature's depictions of Luther and Calvin's place in the history of Christian-Jewish relations. The article highlights biblical interpretation-particularly the defense of Scripture's perspicuity-as the distinctive locus of the reformers' angst concerning Jews and Judaism. In conclusion, the author offers some lessons from church history for discerning what Christian faithfulness might look like in response to this troubling history.
Hate and Hermeneutics: Interpretive Authority in Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies
ailed by reform-minded contemporaries for tacking Catholicism to a Wittenberg door, Martin Luther has more recently been excoriated for nailing Judaism to the wall. His 1543 diatribe, On the Jews and Their Lies, which foreshadowed many of the Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust, was considered regrettable even by Luther's friends and has been either an enigma or an embarrassment to students of Luther ever since. It remained under a -ban of oblivion‖ for nearly three centuries and was not even translated into English until 1971-even then, as the American edition apologized, -for historical purposes only, in order that the record of Luther's thought and writing might be complete.‖ 1 Since that time numerous studies have appeared attempting either to explain or to explain away Luther's anti-Semitism. Adding to that number (hopefully in the former category), the present examination of Luther's most infamous anti-Jewish treatise is intended neither to excuse Luther's vitriol nor to revel in what one scholar called the -excellent chance to see one of the great men of Christendom with his pants down.‖ 2 Rather, I offer a brief rhetorical critique of Luther's polemic that makes three interrelated assertions: first, that the focus of Luther's anti-Judaism was primarily scriptural, centering on contested exegesis of a text central to both communities; second, that in attacking the Jews, Luther intended additionally (and perhaps even primarily) to target Catholicism, his true rival in the contest over scriptural interpretation; and third, that Luther's rhetoric of ridicule-a caustic blend of sarcasm, invective, and low-brow scatology-was central rather than secondary to his more rational arguments, an admission that logic alone is insufficient when settling religious questions in the absence of agreed-upon authorities. In short, I argue that Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies is illustrative of the ongoing debate over scriptural interpretation in 1 On the -ban of oblivion‖ see Johannes Wallmann, -The
Martin Luther and Anti-Semitism: A Discussion
Theology Today, 2017
This transcription of the Question and Answer period for the public event “Martin Luther and Anti-Semitism” was held at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on November 13, 2016. This event was co-presented by the Morgan Library & Museum, the Leo Baeck Institute, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul in New York City, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany. The discussion session—as well as the two lectures preceding (also published in this issue)—took place as part of a series of events in conjunction with the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition “Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation” which ran from October 7, 2016 through January 22, 2017. Professor Mark Silk, Director, Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, served as moderator for the Q&A session. The respondents were Professor Dean P. Bell, Provost, Vice President, and...
A Lutheran Response to Luther’s Unsettling Antisemitism
Consensus, 2020
irst, let me thank Rabbi Telushkin for his wise words, and his invitation for me to think through, with you, how passion has usurped ethics in the thought, and life, of Martin Luther, especially as evidenced in his hostility towards the Jews. Steven Katz, in The Holocaust in Historical Context has noted that Luther "is often described as the single most important source of later, obsessive German antisemitism and is held accountable for the enduring hatred of the Jews" (Katz 1995, 386-387). He goes on to note that there is "considerable truth in this accusation" (Katz 1995, 386-387). The conversation we are having today is incredibly important for many reasons, not least of which is that the institution hosting this conversation bears Luther's name. But beyond this is the question concerning what to do with someone whose legacy is marred by horrific and unconscionable diatribes. Alas, Luther is but a singular instance of what holds true for many other people whose lives have impacted world history. Is it possible to separate the wheat from the weeds, and then to sift the wheat from the chaff? What do we do with Luther's treatment of the Jewish people? Luther's animus to the Jews might seem surprising in light of his early compassion and interest in them. We read, for instance, in "That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew" (1523): Therefore, I would request and advise that one deal gently with them and instruct them from Scripture; then some of them may come along. Instead of this, we are trying only to drive them by force, slandering them, accusing them of having Christian blood if they don't stink, and I know not what other foolishness. Again, when we forbid them to labor and business and have any human fellowship with us, thereby forcing them into usury, how is that supposed to do them any good? (Shramm and Stjerna 2012, 83) Luther seems to be challenging many of the commonplace stereotypes associated with the Jewish people of his day. But then, 23 years later we read this same Luther commending rulers to "burn down their synagogues … force them to work and deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying three thousand lest the whole people perish" (Luther 1971, 291). Later he writes, "If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs" (Luther 1971, 291). He also suggests restricting their travel (Luther 1971, 276), the confiscation of their prayer books, the forbidding of public prayer and education, as well as uttering "the name of God within our hearing" (Luther 1971, 286). This horrid and drastic shift in language has long bewildered interpreters of Luther. Why this change? Did Luther's theology shift? Did he have experiences that he was reacting against? Did he imbibe some new anti-Jewish texts? Aarne Siirala, a former professor at Luther, surveyed responses to some of these questions in a LWF document. He referenced Luther's own estimation that "The Jews had F
The Reformation and the Jewish People: Culpable Heritage and Belated Renewal 1
Luther's heritage of severe antijudaism had not been without effect to the rise of antisemitism in the pre-Nazi time and to the steps that led to the holocaust. The terrible anti-Jewish advises he wrote down in his "The Jews and their Lies" (1543) had been carried out about 500 years later. Luther's theology, rightly inspiring for generations of theologians and the Church in many ways, has to be interrogated concerning the structures of his theological thinking that were responsible for his attitude to the Jews.
Journal of the Council for Research on Religion, 2020
The topic of this paper is the complex and ambivalent relationship between the Reformed Churches and Judaism, moving from a kind of Philo-Semitism to Christian Zionism and support for the State of Israel on the one hand, to missionary movements among Jews to anti-Judaism, and the contribution to the horrors of the Holocaust on the other hand. In between the two extremes stands the respect for the Old Testament and the neglect of the Apocrypha and other early Jewish writings. The initial focus of this article will be on what Martin Luther and Jean Calvin wrote about Judaism at the beginning of the Reformation over 500 years ago. Secondly, the article will deal with the influence of mission activity toward Jews and the emergence of Liberal Judaism as both scholarship and theology in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Lastly, the article will address the question of how the Holocaust and subsequent Jewish-Christian dialogue have changed the course of this relatio...
A Religio-Political Discourse: The Decalogue in the Large Catechism of Martin Luther
The Jewish Decalogue has not only been depicted in the Qur'an of the Middle Ages, but also was transmitted into the early modern era. The teaching of the Decalogue was one of the major biblical sources the 16th century reformist people adopted to defend their new religious movement against the Medieval Catholic tradition. In particular, when Martin Luther led a new protestant church, he wrote a clear commentary of the new faith in the form of two catechisms in 1529. The Small Catechism was for training of children. The Large Catechism was an institutional manual for pastors or teachers. The German reformer independently applied the Exodus version (20:17) of the Decalogue in the Large Catechism. Then, how did Luther use the Decalogue in the light of his reformation campaign? How has his metaphorical discourse been revealed on the Decalogue? This paper explores the textual genre and historical context of the Reformation teaching in unveiling Luther's religio-political intention over the authority and power of the traditional papacy.