Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People: A Reader

by Brooks Schramm, Kirsi I. Stjerna

Overview

The place and significance of Martin Luther in the long history of Christian anti-Jewish polemic has been and continues to be a contested issue. It is true that Luther's anti-Jewish rhetoric intensified toward the end of his life, but reading Luther with a careful eye toward "the Jewish question," it becomes clear that Luther's theological presuppositions toward Judaism and the Jewish people are a central, core component of his thought throughout his career, not just at the end. It follows then that it is impossible to understand the heart and building blocks of Luther's theology without acknowledging the crucial role of "the Jews" in his fundamental thinking.

Luther was constrained by ideas, images, and superstitions regarding the Jews and Judaism that he inherited from medieval Christian tradition. But the engine in the development of Luther's theological thought as it relates to the Jews is his biblical hermeneutics. Just as "the Jewish question" is a central, core component of his thought, so biblical interpretation (and especially Old Testament interpretation) is the primary arena in which fundamental claims about the Jews and Judaism are formulated and developed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800698041
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	08/01/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Brooks Schramm is professor of biblical studies, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He is the author of The Opponents of Third Isaiah (1995) and with Kirsi Stjerna of Spirituality: Toward a Twenty-First Century Understanding (2004).

Kirsi I. Stjerna is First Lutheran, Los Angeles/Southwest California Synod Professor of Lutheran History and Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California Lutheran University, Berkeley, a Core Doctoral Faculty member at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and a Docent in Helsinki University, Finland. She has authored several books, including Women and the Reformation and Luther, The Bible and the Jewish People (with Brooks Schramm), and Lutheran Theology: A Grammar of Faith. She is one of three general editors of the six-volume The Annotated Luther (Fortress Press).

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction

Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People Brooks Schramm 3

Why This book? 3

What Luther Knew and Thought of Judaism 5

The Roots of Luther's Anti-Judaism 10

The Jew in Luther's World Kirsi Stjerna 17

Distorted Images 18

Fragile Communities 21

Limiting Rules 24

The Specter of "Usury" 27

Sicut Judaeis 28

Reality and Interaction, Ghetto and Badge 30

"Friends of Jews" 32

The Many Faces of the "Jew" for Luther 33

Texts

The Text Selections 39

Text #1 First Psalms Lectures (1513-1515) 41

Text #2 Letter to George Spalatin (1514) 50

Text #3 Lectures on Romans (1515-1516) 53

Text #4 Lectures on Galatians (1519) 59

Text #5 Second Psalms Lectures (1519-1521) 67

Text #6 Magnificat (1521) 70

Text #7 That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew (1523) 76

Text #8 Letter to the Baptized Jew, Bernhard (1523) 84

Text #9 Lectures on Deuteronomy (1525) 87

Text #10 Sermon: How Christians Should Regard Moses (1525) 93

Text #11 Lectures on Zechariah (1525/1526) 99

Text #12 Sermon on Jeremiah 23:5-8 (The Visit of Three Jews) (1526) 104

Text #13 Commentary on Psalm 109 (1526) 107

Text #14 Lectures on Isaiah (1527-1530) 117

Text #15 Preface to Daniel (1530) 122

Text #16 Letter to Josel of Rosheim (1537) 126

Text #17 Lectures on Genesis 12 (1537) 129

Text #18 Three Symbols of the Christian Faith (1538) 136

Text #19 Lectures on Genesis 17 (1538) 141

Text #20 Against the Sabbatarians (1538) 147

Text #21 New Preface to Ezekiel (1541) 156

Text #22 Liscentiate Exam Heinrich Schmedenstede (1542) 161

Text #23 On the Jews and their Lies (1543) 164

Text #24 On the Ineffable Name and on the Lineage of Christ (1543) 177

Text #25 Josel of Rosheim: Letter to the Strasbourg City Council (1543) 181

Text #26 On the Last Words of David (1543) 188

Text #27 Two Letters to Katharian Luther (1546) 197

Text #28 An Admonition against the Jews (1546) 200

Afterword 203

Chronology 206

At a Glance 206

Timetable 207

ELCA Declaration 211

Abbreviations 212

Notes 214

Bibliography 230