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Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity
In Living Letters of the Law , Jeremy Cohen investigates the images of Jews and Judaism in the works of medieval Christian theologians from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas. He reveals how―and why―medieval Christianity fashioned a Jew on the basis of its reading of the Bible, and how this hermeneutically crafted Jew assumed distinctive character and power in Christian thought and culture.
Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness, which constructed the Jews so as to mandate their survival in a properly ordered Christian world, is the starting point for this illuminating study. Cohen demonstrates how adaptations of this doctrine reflected change in the self-consciousness of early medieval civilization. After exploring the effect of twelfth-century Europe's encounter with Islam on the value of Augustine's Jewish witnesses, he concludes with a new assessment of the reception of Augustine's ideas among thirteenth-century popes and friars.
Consistently linking the medieval idea of the Jew with broader issues of textual criticism, anthropology, and the philosophy of history, this book demonstrates the complex significance of Christianity's "hermeneutical Jew" not only in the history of antisemitism but also in the broad scope of Western intellectual history.
Augustine's doctrine of Jewish witness, which constructed the Jews so as to mandate their survival in a properly ordered Christian world, is the starting point for this illuminating study. Cohen demonstrates how adaptations of this doctrine reflected change in the self-consciousness of early medieval civilization. After exploring the effect of twelfth-century Europe's encounter with Islam on the value of Augustine's Jewish witnesses, he concludes with a new assessment of the reception of Augustine's ideas among thirteenth-century popes and friars.
Consistently linking the medieval idea of the Jew with broader issues of textual criticism, anthropology, and the philosophy of history, this book demonstrates the complex significance of Christianity's "hermeneutical Jew" not only in the history of antisemitism but also in the broad scope of Western intellectual history.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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December 31, 2021
I read this book on the heels having finished Paula Fredriksen's Augustine and the Jews, which for a non-specialist is about as good a starting point for Cohen's book as any. Cohen's writing is not as approachable as Fredriksen's. To be fair, though, her book appears to have been written and edited for a wider audience. That said, Cohen's explanation of the Augustinian Doctrine of Jewish Witness is not in the form of an apologia and, as such, provides a more balanced accounting of a set of ideas that would influence ecclesiastic and royal policy towards Jews for centuries after its formulation.
There are a couple of points where one feels as if Cohen would have benefited from being able to read the Fredriksen book first (it was published several years after his.) Perhaps he would have slightly deemphasized the importance of Psalm 59:11 ("Do not kill them lest my people forget") in Augustine's thinking about the Jews. He might also have provided a more nuanced accounting of how the personage of Cain featured differently in early and late Augustinian writings. But those are trifles and, as noted above, I'm hardly qualified to dwell on such seemingly small points of difference.
If like me you were to read both books, you might be surprised to find that each is home to one half a pair of identical twins. Cohen's "hermeneutical Jew", the term he uses to describe a medieval Christian theological construct of the Jew--as opposed to actual Jews--is the spitting image of Fredriksen's "rhetorical Jew." It appears both may have been drawing from the work of Robert Marcus, but as I pointed out in my earlier review of the Fredriksen book, I was surprised not to read more engagement with (and dare I say credit to) Cohen's work in Augustine and the Jews.
But enough comparison! The Cohen book, as evidenced from the 4.4 stars that 10 readers have given it on Goodreads to date, stands on its own just fine. Cohen's research is broad, spanning from Augustine in late antiquity to Aquinas in the high Middle Ages. He introduced this reader to a number of fascinating characters that I hadn't read about before, among them Isidore of (pre-Mohammedan) Spain, Peter Alfonsi (a Jewish convert to Christianity raised under the Taifa of Seville), and Hermann of Cologne (another convert with a fascinating life story).
I was also reacquainted with some figures of old that I've read about before, adding color and context to the lives of men such as Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Peter Abelard. It was interesting to learn of of Gregory the Great's appreciation of Roman canon law, especially having read Peter Heather's take on a series of medieval "barbarian pretenders" that similarly valued the idea of Roman law and order. In the Fredriksen book Bernard only merits an epigraph, and that conveniently cut for introductory purposes. Whereas in Cohen's book we get the rest of the story, so to speak. And while we're spared the more heinous of his misfortunes in Cohen's overview, it's still good to learn more about so important a figure in the 12th c. Renaissance as Peter Abelard.
If the books characters are what appeal to this generally educated reader, it's not because its overall structure is lacking, or is unintelligible. Cohen argues that three macros factors contributed to gradual eclipse of the Augustinian Doctrine of Witness. First, the church outgrew certain Roman-informed ideas, especially with regard to sexuality, that had led Augustine to his conclusions. Second, growing Christian encounters with Saracens, especially during the Crusades, led to a rethink of the position of the Jew in a properly ordered Christian society. And third, that as 13th Christian scholars attained a greater (if still only surface oriented) familiarity with the Talmud they came to see post-biblical Judaism as different than biblical Judaism, and heretical.
The book ends before we learn how such ideas would go on to affect Christian thinking about the Jews during the Renaissance and later times, but it's not hard to understand the more condemnatory/hostile attitude of the high Middle Ages was not a good thing for European Jews. The book does not end, however, before we get a few pages of interesting speculations, a few pages which left this reader wanting to read THAT book!
Cohen after writing at length (300+ page) about how Christian theologians constructed the Jew as the living letter of the law then tells us that in fact the Jewish sages and rabbis of old did the same! There's unfortunately not more than a handful of citations to lead the curious reader off in another direction (and of all the Neusner books on my shelves The Incarnation of God is not one of them...dratts.)
Nonetheless, such speculations ended Cohen's book on a pronounced note of excitement, which was welcome from a book that was often a slow-going read. Four stars seems too high for this one. Maybe those who have seen fit to award it four are scholars enamoured by the sheer breadth of research on display. No doubt, that is impressive. But for me if this book is on your shelf, I'd recommend the first and last chapters, and that you then selectively read from what is essentially a series of intellectual biographies in between. (C) Jeffrey L. Otto, December 30, 2021
p.s. Thanks to whoever from the Bayit community donated this to the biannual sefarim sale earlier this year. What a pleasure to read such a book, and to see someone before me had also read thoughtfully!
There are a couple of points where one feels as if Cohen would have benefited from being able to read the Fredriksen book first (it was published several years after his.) Perhaps he would have slightly deemphasized the importance of Psalm 59:11 ("Do not kill them lest my people forget") in Augustine's thinking about the Jews. He might also have provided a more nuanced accounting of how the personage of Cain featured differently in early and late Augustinian writings. But those are trifles and, as noted above, I'm hardly qualified to dwell on such seemingly small points of difference.
If like me you were to read both books, you might be surprised to find that each is home to one half a pair of identical twins. Cohen's "hermeneutical Jew", the term he uses to describe a medieval Christian theological construct of the Jew--as opposed to actual Jews--is the spitting image of Fredriksen's "rhetorical Jew." It appears both may have been drawing from the work of Robert Marcus, but as I pointed out in my earlier review of the Fredriksen book, I was surprised not to read more engagement with (and dare I say credit to) Cohen's work in Augustine and the Jews.
But enough comparison! The Cohen book, as evidenced from the 4.4 stars that 10 readers have given it on Goodreads to date, stands on its own just fine. Cohen's research is broad, spanning from Augustine in late antiquity to Aquinas in the high Middle Ages. He introduced this reader to a number of fascinating characters that I hadn't read about before, among them Isidore of (pre-Mohammedan) Spain, Peter Alfonsi (a Jewish convert to Christianity raised under the Taifa of Seville), and Hermann of Cologne (another convert with a fascinating life story).
I was also reacquainted with some figures of old that I've read about before, adding color and context to the lives of men such as Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Peter Abelard. It was interesting to learn of of Gregory the Great's appreciation of Roman canon law, especially having read Peter Heather's take on a series of medieval "barbarian pretenders" that similarly valued the idea of Roman law and order. In the Fredriksen book Bernard only merits an epigraph, and that conveniently cut for introductory purposes. Whereas in Cohen's book we get the rest of the story, so to speak. And while we're spared the more heinous of his misfortunes in Cohen's overview, it's still good to learn more about so important a figure in the 12th c. Renaissance as Peter Abelard.
If the books characters are what appeal to this generally educated reader, it's not because its overall structure is lacking, or is unintelligible. Cohen argues that three macros factors contributed to gradual eclipse of the Augustinian Doctrine of Witness. First, the church outgrew certain Roman-informed ideas, especially with regard to sexuality, that had led Augustine to his conclusions. Second, growing Christian encounters with Saracens, especially during the Crusades, led to a rethink of the position of the Jew in a properly ordered Christian society. And third, that as 13th Christian scholars attained a greater (if still only surface oriented) familiarity with the Talmud they came to see post-biblical Judaism as different than biblical Judaism, and heretical.
The book ends before we learn how such ideas would go on to affect Christian thinking about the Jews during the Renaissance and later times, but it's not hard to understand the more condemnatory/hostile attitude of the high Middle Ages was not a good thing for European Jews. The book does not end, however, before we get a few pages of interesting speculations, a few pages which left this reader wanting to read THAT book!
Cohen after writing at length (300+ page) about how Christian theologians constructed the Jew as the living letter of the law then tells us that in fact the Jewish sages and rabbis of old did the same! There's unfortunately not more than a handful of citations to lead the curious reader off in another direction (and of all the Neusner books on my shelves The Incarnation of God is not one of them...dratts.)
Nonetheless, such speculations ended Cohen's book on a pronounced note of excitement, which was welcome from a book that was often a slow-going read. Four stars seems too high for this one. Maybe those who have seen fit to award it four are scholars enamoured by the sheer breadth of research on display. No doubt, that is impressive. But for me if this book is on your shelf, I'd recommend the first and last chapters, and that you then selectively read from what is essentially a series of intellectual biographies in between. (C) Jeffrey L. Otto, December 30, 2021
p.s. Thanks to whoever from the Bayit community donated this to the biannual sefarim sale earlier this year. What a pleasure to read such a book, and to see someone before me had also read thoughtfully!
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