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

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Alone among the early Christian theologians Augustine taught that Jews continued to be a chosen and protected people and that Christians should neither harm them nor attempt their forcible conversion. He did not come to these views for what we today would call humanitarian reasons, still less because he was in favor of tolerance or of modern "multiculturalism." Indeed he favored coercion when it came to pagans and (especially) as it applied to "heretical" Christians such as the Donatists.

Instead Augustine had reached a theological conclusion unprecedented in Christian history. The Jews and their scriptures, argued Augustine, still had an important role to play in salvation history. Their books bore witness to the truth of Christianity. There were prophecies, of course, that could be seen by anyone to have been fulfilled by the events of the life of Christ. The events and people of Jewish history, moreover, were types for the events not only of Christ's life but of salvation history down to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE (which Augustine saw as God's punishment of the Jews and the beginning of the Diaspora). Even the continuing failure of the Jews to recognize and accept Christ helped the Christians because the Jews continually "witnessed" both the antiquity and the authenticity of their own scriptures, which in turn validated Christ as lord and Messiah. Augustine saw this as the mission that God imposed upon the Jews whom He had made willfully blind to Christ's truth just so that they could assist in Christianity's mission "to the nations."

The book chronicles how Augustine painstakingly worked out this position and what he based it on. He changed his thinking (but not his conclusions) somewhat over time. In order to do this, Prof. Fredriksen opens the book by describing the cultural and intellectual world that Augustine lived in, dominated as it was by Greek culture ("Hellenism"), Neo-Platonic ideas and the formal modes of rhetorical argument in which all educated men were thoroughly schooled (yes, the same schools of rhetoric which Plato had his Socrates inveigh against). She also explains how this milieu and these ideas dominated and affected Christian theological discourse from the earliest Christian scriptures to Augustine's time. She also describes (in summary form) Augustine's life, emphasizing his intellectual development and theological positions.

Fredriksen feels (rightly) that only such a background provides the context for a proper understanding of the intellectual problems that Augustine faced, what he brought to considering them and the ways in which he worked them out. The book is history, of course, not a critique of the validity of Augustine's theology and the explication deals with the what and the how of Augustine's positions, not with ultimate validity.

The book is written for the educated general reader. The amount of time that Fredriksen spends on explaining Hellenism and other aspects of the intellectual and social culture of antiquity shows this as these ideas are well-known to professional scholars of the period. It is beautifully and clearly written, making difficult concepts (that are also obscure to moderns) as accessible as I have ever seen. Fredriksen even occasionally succeeds in making some of these ancient personalities, especially Augustine, live on the page, not an easy thing to do given the paucity of personal information on ancient figures (of course Augustine is a partial exception to this).

For all its accessibility, however, the book is rigorous and requires close attention. It is a full-blown work of scholarship made accessible not by "dumbing down" but by the brilliant expository skills of someone who is clearly a dedicated teacher and one who believes that history belongs outside the often cloistered world of the academy as well as inside it.

Augustine is one of the more interesting figures of late antiquity. His exploration of Scriptures and theology was a significant factor in developing Christian doctrine. In the process, he changed the nature of rhetoric, shifting its focus from oratory to textual exegesis, what George Kennedy called "secondary rhetoric." His application of allegoresis to biblical interpretation laid the foundation for modern literary hermeneutics, and his CONFESSIONS provided a new model for autobiography.

A significant factor in the rise of early Christianity was the movement's hostility toward Jews, who--owing to the influence of Greek philosophy--were viewed as followers of the subordinate, "fleshly" God of the Old Testament and whose innate obstinance would not allow them to accept the True God, who existed outside the realm of the flesh.

Fredriksen examines how Augustine came to reject this view and to argue that the Jewish God and the Christian God were one and the same. In doing so, Augustine fundamentally altered the relationship between Christianity and Judaism and one might argue saved Jews from the widespread persecution that Christians carried out against all other religious groups between the 4th and 6th centuries.

Fredriksen is a first-rate scholar and a brilliant writer. Her book is beautifully written, thoroughly researched and documented, a sheer joy to read, and it certainly should be required reading for anyone interested in Augustine. Arguably, it is the best book written on Augustine since Peter Brown's classic AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO.

This book provided insights to both religious and to the historic background of the times. As someone who has read widely in this area, I find myself recommending this book to all the friends who have an interest in theology and history.

Who would think that a scholarly book on such a seemingly arcane topic could be so thoroughly enjoyable! With the right balance of scholarship, detail and humor, Paula Fredriksen makes the classical era of Greco-Roman learning come alive, while leading readers through the evolution of thought on many philosophical and theological issues, some of which haunt us to this day. In the process, the personalities of the principles - St. Augustine the erudite scholar, St. Paul, the conflicted Jew, St Jerome, "the diva" (as the author terms him) - come shining through. A "must-read" for students of philosophy, theology and history, as well as general readers who wish to trace the evolving polytheism to monotheism, Paganism, Judaism and Christianity.

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

Fredrikson is a distinguished scholar. I have read several of her works. She has the gift of bringing rigorous scholarship to bear on complex topics in religious history.

I am not pleased with this book and the historical inaccuracies in it.

"What, in fact, Ms. Fredriksen has done is turn Augustine's reluctant concession to the Jews into an unconditional commitment to them. But if one reads carefully, and in context, Augustine's remarks in both the City of God and his Commentary on the Psalms they show only that he believes God allows unbelieving Jews (which is the vast majority of Jews) to exist purely for the sake of Christianity, not for the sake of "Jews as Jews," nor to extend, legitimize, or encourage Judaism in the Christian era. As we will see later in other quotes, Augustine is clear in his writings that Judaism is a dead religion and that the only way Jews can have any spiritual hope is if they accept Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church"

Read more of the review at Catechismclass [dot] com and search in the search bar in the top right corner for Book Review of Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism

Toward the end of her book, "Augustine and the Jews", the authoress sums up with, "Is there any way to know how [St.] Augustine thought and felt... about his actual Jewish contemporaries?...what [St.] Augustine says about...Jews...cannot be read as direct evidence to help us settle this question", [p 353].

But then she hedges and goes on to let a negative support a positive by saying, "What can and does help us, however, is something that he does not say."

(Here she may partly be referring to St. Augustine's passive attitude toward Judaics where the other bishops were against them for a matter that is described in the book occurring on the island of Minorca).

My take on the Saint's benign attitude toward the Judaics was that their Old Testament predicted the coming of the Lord even though they never accepted Him. And also that they were "dispersed throughout the nations" and so could spread that word, thus inadvertantly supporting Christianity. The Saint wanted the Judaics preserved because he thought they were the "servants of the Church", not because he had the least admiration for anything Judaic. Quite the contrary, half of the Saint's sermons had anti-Judaic content and a little less than a score were heavily laden with it, [p 305].

So for "truth in advertising", the book sub-title "...A Christian defense of Jews and Judaism", is misleading and a questionable proposition. But in fairness to the author, it sounds suspiciously as if that sub-title might have been added by the Jewish publisher (Knopf Doubleday), to put some marketing spin in to an otherwise flat title.

Relative to the Judaic's Holy Writ, the Saint, familiar with the Torah SheBichtav, was basing his views on that. Yet in existance at his time, (but currently a little more accessible), the even holier Torah SheBeal Peh, or essentially the Babylonian Talmud, was probably something he had no clue of. Had he, his let-them-be views toward Judaism and Judaics might have been very different. And in our time, since the OT is so thoroughly known and incorporated into the Christian Bible, it seems the Saint's rationale of passivity toward the Judaics as "servants of the Church" no longer obtains, for they are not that -- just the opposite.

Yet, still one is curious about the personal psychology -- the motivation -- of the author.

She evidently has been an academic of some (but not universal) respect, and converted from Christianity to Judaism; (an anti-Christian act by definiton.) I don't believe this is very common to do. Not knowing the circumstances, one would be hardpressed not to be led to suspect that some deep motivational factors might include that since the Jews are now the defacto elite, (that will not say its name), conversion to their fold would bring all the good academic and financial perks that go along with that.

But, put that aside since there is no proof one way or the other of something as occult as this deep inner psychology -- although the question does, I believe, bear asking, and to ask it is not intended to be hostile, rude, or anti-Semitic in the slightest.

St. Augustine was dead set against the Jews, and for sound theological reasons. As Robert Sungenis says, "Never once does he speak of Jews having a place alongside Christianity, much less does he ever commit himself to saying that they 'worship the One God.' How could he? Augustine knows that the Judaism of his day rejected Jesus Christ outright,..."; (as it has always done and does even to our day.)

Finally -- a bit of a time warp -- for the Judaics of St. Augustine's period Prof. Fredriksen uses the noun "Jews" which has been shown by Benjamin H. Freedman and others to have not come into usage until about the nineteenth century.

This book, by a respected academic historian of early Christianity, seeks to establish that St. Augustine, unlike many early Christian theologians, was relatively unhostile to the Jews. Relatively is the operative word, for most early Christian writers, as well as most in the next fifteen hundred years, were characteristically hostile to Jews for their failure to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

Many saints were notorious anti-Semites: Justin Martyr, John Chrysostom, St. Dominic, Vincent Ferrer, etc. Augustine was a bit different, since in his battles against the Manichees whom he had previously supported he found his foundation in the writings of St. Paul who, as a Jew, was at least somewhat sympathetic to his fellow Jews. Augustine eventually found that he could explain what was mysterious by the doctrine of pre-destination and the utter sovereignty of God, doctrines which gave even the Jews some help in that their disbelief could be considered predestined as well for God's inscrutable purposes.

Still it is hard to claim, and Fredriksen does not do so, that Augustine's relatively supportive view of Jews and Judaism had any positive effect in preventing the persecution of Jews in Christian lands and the violence against them.

It is interesting to note that the Augustinian tradition, found to be less anti-Jewish than other traditions in Christianity, influenced groups, like the Calvinists of various sorts, who were in their view of the Jews somewhat, I say 'somewhat,' less murderously hostile than normative Catholics and Lutherans.

Fredriksen does not ask a question I would ask: why would gentiles, whether Christian or pagan, not be scornful of Jews? Have you read the Old Testament? Have you read the Talmud? This religion of the Jews, as the rabbis proclaimed it, was ridiculous, superstitious, narrow and pedestrian. This is no defense of Christian pogroms against Jews or anti-Jewish feeling or action, but it is worth asking. It is not politically correct to note the ridiculousness of Talmudic Judaism but that does not mean that tolerance demands praise. Judaism like Chritianity and Islam are absurd religions.