Excaecati Occulta Justitia Dei: Augustine on Jews and Judaism

Seen in the perspective of the contra Iudaeos tradition, Augustine emerges as an idiosyncratic and innovative thinker whose tone when speaking of Jews and Judaism is exceptionally mild and whose estimate of the Jewish role in history is surprisingly positive. This essay argues that Augustine's relatively ironic "theology of Judaism" is the measure of his affirmation, against the Manichees, not of Jews per se, but of the God of Israel. This affirmation drove him ultimately to affirm, as with divine acceptance of Saul (ad Simplicianum) so with divine rejection of carnal Israel (c. Faustum), that God is just, though his justice is in principle hidden, occultissima. Against Blumenkranz, the essay concludes that theological encounters with Manichees, and not social encounters with Jews, stimulated Augustine's peculiar teaching.