Luther, the Bible, & the Jews

Catalog description

Martin Luther did not know any practicing Jews but he wrote about the Jewish faith throughout his career. He inherited and developed ingredients for a Christian theology and biblical hermeneutics that are of supersessionist nature. This seminar will probe the logic, ingredients, and context of Luther's comments about the Jews, particularly in his biblical hermeneutics and Christology. Attention will be given to his predecessors and contemporaries, as well as (select) subsequent appropriations of anti-Jewish ideologies in the early twentieth-century. In the post-Holocaust world of theology and history writing, and prompted by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, a critical re-assessment of the legacy of one of the most influential Christian teachers facilitates the necessary theological adjustments with the fundamentals of Christian faith for the sake of its transformative relevance in today's global and inter-faith context. This 4000-level course is open to advanced Master's level students and PhD candidates.