The Augustinian Perception

Prof. Jeremy Cohen

The development of the Christian Adversus Judaeos tradition entered a new phase in the late fourth and early fifth centuries CE, when the most prominent of the Latin Church fathers, Augustine of Hippo, laid the groundwork for what would become the guiding Christian approach to the role of the Jews in medieval Christian society.

What was St. Augustine’s perception of the Jews and how did it affect their treatment?

References

• Cohen, Jeremy, Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

• Fredriksen, Paula, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).‏