How should we understand Luther's role in the long history of Christian anti-Jewish polemic? For some Luther was "merely" a man of his times. Others argue that Luther was limited by the ideas and superstitions of Medieval Christian tradition. Some argue his attitudes are largely confined to the final stages of his career.

But what if Luther's presuppositions toward Judaism and the Jewish people are a central component of his thought throughout his career?

In this important reader, Schramm and Stjerna highlight the role of biblical hermeneutics in the development of Luther's theological thought about the Jews. They convincingly become demonstrate that it is in biblical interpretation that Luther's fundamental claims about the Jews and Judaism are developed.

Product Information

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Title: Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People: A Reader
By: Brooks Schramm & Kirsi I. Stjerna, eds.
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 256
Vendor: Fortress Press

Weight: 15 ounces
ISBN: 0800698045
ISBN-13: 9780800698041
Stock No: WW698040

Publisher's Description

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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.

Author Bio

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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).