Despite its foundation in Judaism, Christianity has frequently struggled with anti-Judaism throughout its history. In Augustine and the Jews, Paula Fredriksen draws us into the life, times, and thought of Augustine of Hippo (354430). 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 Jewish scripture and practice, he argued, was the same as that of the New Testament and of the church, namely, God himself. Accordingly, he urged, the Jews alone were to be left alone. Conceived as a vividly original way to defend Christian ideas about Jesus and about combining the Old Testament with the New, Augustine's theology survived the demise of Mediterranean Roman culture, and it ultimately served to protect Jewish lives against the brutality of the Medieval crusades.
Augustine and the Jews sheds new light on the roots of anti-Semitism and, through Augustine, provides a path toward better understanding between two of the world's great religions.
