Aquinas and the Jews / John Y.B. Hood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hood, John Y. B., 1962-

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Press.

Series:

Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judaism--Relations--Christianity.

Judaism.

Relations.

Christianity.

Christianity and other religions--Judaism.

Christianity and other religions.

Christianity and antisemitism--History.

Christianity and antisemitism.

History.

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Thomas.

Judaism (Christian theology)--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Judaism (Christian theology).

Judaism (Christian theology)--History of doctrines.

Local Subjects:

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 145 pages).

Other Title:

Penn Press e-books.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [1995]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

As a theologian of major influence in western Christendom, Saint Thomas Aquinas has served for seven hundred years as the major conduit of traditional Christian teachings about Jews. Scattered throughout his Summa Theologiae, De Regimine Iudaeorum, and commentaries on Romans, Matthew, and John, Aquinas's teachings on Jews are fundamentally conservative. Nevertheless, John Hood concludes in the first full-length study of this subject, Aquinas comes closer than any other writer to revealing the latent contradictions in the medieval Church's teachings on Jews.

For medieval theologians, Jews were the chosen people of God, but the Jews of the Christian era had rejected Jesus. New Testament passages revealed that Jews who called for Jesus' execution did not know that he was the Messiah--yet patristic theology made Jews guilty of his murder. Medieval Christians believed that the Jews would eventually accept Christ and be saved--yet they saw Jews as dangerous infidels rejected and punished by God.

Hood contends that Aquinas's writings remain resistant to or skeptical of anti-Jewish trends in thirteenth-century theology. Aquinas sets out simply to clarify and systematize received theological and canonistic teachings on the Jews. When he encounters contradictions in the received views, he attempts to explain how it is possible for Jews to be both chosen and rejected, ignorant and malicious Christ-killers, damned and destined for salvation.

The bishops of the Second Vatican Council in 1965 declared that "the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed," repudiating a position that the Church had held for more than fifteen hundred years. Aquinas and the Jews provides those interested in medieval history, theology, and Jewish studies with a context for understanding the complexities and contradictions of the Church's doctrine on Jews.

Contents:

The theological tradition

The thirteenth-century context

People of the promises, people of the law

Gravissimum peccatum: the crucifixion of Christ and the guilt of the Jews

The Jews in Christian society

Aquinas and the persecution of European Jews.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-140) and index.

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Hood, John Y.B., 1962- Aquinas and the Jews.

ISBN:

0585172102

9780585172101

9780812200447

0812200446

OCLC:

44964326

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.