Customer Reviews

History, Religion, and Antisemitism (Centennial Book)

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Gavin Langmuir's text '"History, Religion and Antisemitism" is a landmark book in the area of defining religion and its relationship to cultural movements and reason.

In the first part of the book, Langmuir surveys the efforts made to define "religion" by a number of scholars, and finds problems with all of them. Religion is a notoriously difficult concept to define, so this is no surprise. What Langmuir contributes to this issue is a separation between private religious impulses, and religious institutions. Langmuir refers to the former as "religiosity" and to the latter as "religion." Under these definitions, almost all humans have religiosities of one form or another, but they do not become a "religion" until some form of institutionalization takes place. This definition is not without difficulties, but it does deserve serious engagement.

"History" is also covered in the first part of the book. With regard to "history," Langmuir's book is more about the interpretation of history rather than history itself. In looking at the motivations and judgments of historical figures, Langmuir questions why we must accept explanations of earlier scholars or historical figures with regard to their actions or motivations. Langmuir argues that as present-day critics and judges we can reach different conclusions about the past rather than be bound by those people's explanations for their own behavior.
In the last part of the text, Langmuir weaves these two notions together to analyze antisemitism. While others have tried to provide social, theological, or racial reasons for antisemitic actions and behaviors, Langmuir concludes that antisemitism is reducible to an "irrational" form of religiosity., a paranoid conspiracy theory about a group of people---like that found in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Some worldviews are irrational and illogical, and antisemitism is one of them, according to Langmuir.

I disagree with Langmuir's analysis of antisemitism, although his work on history and religion is still valuable. Antisemitism has many facets, from theological to social. Certain New Testament quotations can be used to justify antisemitism and early Christian theology, including Augustine, is notoriously uncomfortable with the presence of Jews. Antisemitism and fascism have histories of their own, and are not simply periodic insane ramblings from people who lack appropriate medication. Rather, they are human worldviews with a coherence and logic of their own. This in no way justifies them as practices, but running away from them and dismissing them as simply "illogical" will not make them go away or help us to understand these all-too-human worldviews any better.

For a better treatment and analysis of contemporary antisemitism read Michael Barkun's work "Religion and the Racist Right."

In this work Langmuir takes the eleventh and twelvth centuries as the key period in the transformation from what he calls Anti- Jewishness to Anti- Semitism. Anti- Jewishness as he understands it has to do with Christianity's conflict with Judaism on matters of faith and practice. Anti- Semitism he insteads see as irrational, and fueled by imaginative constructions and fantasies. The latter as he understands is a reflection of Christian uncertainty in itself at this time.

Langmuir has a wide knowledge of sociology, and anthropology and his writing focuses on understanding collective and social phenomenom.

This work may not be the comprehensive history of Anti- Semitism which would explain it in all its various historical manifestations. But it is an informed scholarly work for all those who wish to understand the medieval Christian variant of this form of human evil.

My book came in the time I expected and in the condition I hoped for. Good all the way around.