Ht: Time.com
St. Augustine of Hippo (354- 430) was probably the most influential Christian thinker after the Gospel writers and St. Paul. It is to him that we owe such doctrines as original sin and predestination. Yet he has traditionally been unpopular with those concerned about Christian treatment of Jews over the centuries, a disapproval that was expressed eight years ago by the popular historian James Carroll in his much-read book Constantine’s Sword. Carroll wrote that Augustine and his followers believed that Jews "’must be allowed to survive, but never to thrive,’" so that their public misery would broadcast their "’proper punishments for their refusal to recognize the truth of the Church’s claims.’" And the rest, goes the claim, was bloody history. But in a new book, Augustine and the Jews, Paula Fredriksen, a Boston University religion professor and self-proclaimed "Augustinista," upends the received wisdom.
I’m typically a fan of Augustine, so it’s interesting to read new research that debunks some of the supposed anti-Semitism in his theology. Read the rest…
