Luther the Anti-Semite: A Contemporary Jewish Perspective by Alon Goshen-Gottstein (review)

A native of Jerusalem, Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein has taught at various educational institutions in Israel. In 1997, an acquaintance requested a course on the Christian saints. None was available. This led him to establish the Elijah Interfaith Institute and become its executive director. The Institute has engaged in a variety of projects aimed at inter-religious understanding, involving Eastern religions as well as the Abrahamic faiths.

This book grew out of conversations between the author and Vitor Westhelle, a Lutheran theologian who taught at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago from 1993 until his death in May 2018. They envisioned a joint publication, but Westhelle's health issues intervened. The result is this short monograph.

The book's fundamental question is how what went wrong in Luther's view of the Jews might be instructive for persons in other religions. The author has in mind all religions, but he draws his examples from Judaism.

The first half of the book, relying mostly on secondary sources, examines Luther in his historical context and on this basis constructs the "Luther model." This model is comprised of factors that moved Luther from the innovative openness of his 1523 treatise, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew," to his harsh recommendations twenty years later. One factor was that "in the absence of real relationship, imagination and fear set in" (61). For Luther, the Jew was "a construct, a projection, a phantasm" (63). Another factor was a failure to understand Judaism on its own terms. In addition, Luther associated the Jews with the devil. According to Goshen-Gottstein, this dismisses the Jews as idolaters who do not worship the true God. In the second half, the author explores how these factors can also have a detrimental effect on the outlook of persons in other religions. He admits that from one setting to another the amount of suffering they have caused has not been the same, but the dynamics are similar enough to deserve careful attention. For example, one factor already mentioned is that Luther had no contact with Jews. Goshen-Gottstein argues that loving the neighbor requires a real relationship and meaningful firsthand knowledge of the other. He laments the absence of both in some sections of Judaism—especially among the Orthodox and particularly those living in Israel. To cite a more complex example, Luther reacted to the Sabbatarians who seemed to him to blur the boundary between Christianity and Judaism. Contemporary Jews have a similar objection to messianic Jews. Whether this emphasis on identity is dangerous depends on how it is combined with other factors. In any case, Goshen-Gottstein finds in Christianity, "a range of respected thinkers exploring the boundaries of Christian identity in relation to other faiths," while "none of this occurs in present-day Judaism" (91).

The author accurately summarizes his argument as an attempt "to make Luther's imperfections not only a call for Christian repentance and theological self-examination but an invitation for Jews, Christians, and people of all faiths to consider the factors and circumstance under which religion goes wrong" (97).

Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein's readiness to challenge those aspects of Judaism that exhibit the same dangers as he finds in Luther are products of a mature Jewish-Christian dialogue. His proposals shift attention from one episode in a long tragic history to the dangers within one's own contemporary community. They deserve careful discussion. But I worry just a little about how Christians who have not abandoned anti-Judaism may view his criticisms of the Jewish community. Through no fault of his own, such criticisms could reinforce their already negative portrait of Judaism.

This is a thought-provoking book, with a novel and important proposal for a constructive use of Luther's mistakes. Some aspects of the proposal seem more significant and persuasive than others, but every part is worth pondering. Surely, seeking to identify and avoid the dangers he examines is an important, ongoing...