A Reflection on the Religious Roots of European Anti-Semitism

Abstract

Western anti-Semitism had deep Christian roots, however, is the New Testament the ultimate religious root of European anti-Semitism? This paper distinguished two concepts: the “anti-Semitic element” and the “anti-Semitic nature”. Then we criticized the “theory of the New Testament’s anti-Semitism”, analyzing its one-sidedness from the perspective of universality, revealing its inner contradictions from the self-identical criterion of understanding. Finally we made a “rational distinction” between the “transcendent domain” and the “immanent domain”, between “God's sovereign activity” and the “ethical prescript”. Although the New Testament has some anti-Semitic elements in the “transcendent domain”, there is no anti-Semitic teaching in the ethical prescript which belongs to the “immanent domain”, so the New Testament is not substantially anti-Semitic. The real root of Christian anti-Semitism is not the New Testament, but the "Zeitgeist" in various periods of the Christian world. Thus we found one solution to the Issue of the New Testament’s anti-Semitism, and the reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism on this issue could be possible.