Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 12-22-2009, 02:54 PM

Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation (or via: amazon.co.uk) by L. Rutgers

interview with the author:

From Roman to Third Reich: anti-Semitism has long history

Quote:

In 388 AD a Christian mob led by a local bishop destroyed the synagogue of Callinicum, a Greco-Roman city in northern Syria. The attack angered emperor Theodosius I, who had declared Christianity the religion of the Roman state just eight years earlier. As the Jewish community enjoyed a protected status under Roman laws, he ordered the synagogue be rebuilt be rebuilt at bishop’s expense. This triggered Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, to write the emperor a letter defending the obliteration of the Jewish temple. What could possibly be wrong with destroying a “house of betrayal and godlessness” where Christ’s name was sullied on a daily basis, Ambrose asked.

Since the second century, Christian leaders had been publishing texts denouncing “the synagogue”, a metaphor for all the followers of Judaism in the Roman empire. While American historians have dismissed these attacks as 'ideological constructions,' Leonard Rutgers, a professor of Late Antiquity at the University of Utrecht specialised in religion, recently published a book disputing this rosy perspective. His book, Making Myths – Jews in early Christian identity formation, describes how the verbal violence directed at the Jewish population by the church leaders became physical in the fourth century.

renassault · 12-22-2009, 03:02 PM

Quote:

describes how the verbal violence directed at the Jewish population by the church leaders became physical in the fourth century.

What a load. Whoever turned it into physical violence is responsible themselves, not the ones who verbally abused it.

Toto · 12-22-2009, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by renassault

Quote:

describes how the verbal violence directed at the Jewish population by the church leaders became physical in the fourth century.

What a load. Whoever turned it into physical violence is responsible themselves, not the ones who verbally abused it.

In this case, they are part of the same organization - the Christian Church.

neilgodfrey · 12-23-2009, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

This triggered Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, to write the emperor a letter defending the obliteration of the Jewish temple. What could possibly be wrong with destroying a “house of betrayal and godlessness” where Christ’s name was sullied on a daily basis, Ambrose asked.

Fancy, this sounds remarkably similar to certain to certain clerics of Moslem, Judaistic and Hindu faiths today who have verbally, over extended time, incited violence against churches and mosques that has been eventually literally carried out. So Christianity has the same roots of intolerance and violence? Surely never!

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