Aquinas and the Jews

5. The Jews in Christian Society

5. The Jews in Christian Society Si dicitur converse a ludaeo infideli: Ubi est Deus tuus? Respondeat ludaeus conversus ad fidem: Ubi est Deus meus apparet in poena vestra , scilicet ludaeorum: quia estis dispersi. —Super Pstdmos 41.2 Aquinas's teaching on the role of Jews in the Christian era rested on three theological pillars. The first of these was the doctrine whose development we traced in the previous chapter: the belief that the exile of the Jews was both a punishment for their role in the Crucifixion and a sign of the triumph of Christianity. Aquinas states the essence of his view in the epigraph above: "If an infidel Jew asks a convert: Where is your God? The convert should give this witness to the faith: The presence of my God is manifest in your punishment—that is, the punishment of the Jews—which is that you are dispersed." The second pillar was Romans n. Here Paul, seeking to forestall the development of Gentile triumphalism and contempt for Jews, had made it clear that the rejection of the Jews was temporary, that God still loved them, and that in time they would convert. What is more, he argued, this conversion would mean nothing less than "the resurrection of the dead" (Rm. 11.15). Thomas, reflecting on the experience of a thousand years of Christian missionary failure among Jews, sought to dampen the apostle's enthusiastic vision. Paul was exaggerating, he claimed; not every individual Jew would be saved. Nevertheless, he was certain that the Jews as a group would some day convert. It is possible to designate a terminus, because it seems that the blindness of the Jews will endure until all the pagans chosen for salvation have accepted the faith. And this is in accord with what Paul says below about the salvation of the Jews, namely, that after the conversion of the pagans, all Israel will be saved. "All"here does not mean each individual; rather, "all"Jews will be saved in a general sense.1 78 Chapter 5 Following the Fathers and the Glossa ordinaria, Aquinas went on to explain that this mass conversion would be the catalyst for the pa-rousia, the consummation of all human history in the Last Judgement. The third theological pillar was the Augustinian theory that Christianity benefited from the continued presence of Jews. This theory claims that the dispersion of the Jews aids Christian missionary efforts, because their very existence lends credence to the argument that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies. True, the Jews do not accept this argument , but their presence guarantees the antiquity of the Hebrew scriptures on which it is based. Without the Jews' presence, pagans might regard Old Testament prophecies as ex post facto Christian fabrications. Because of their impenitence they have been scattered among allthe nations. In this way Christ and the Church everywhere receivethe testimony ofJewish books to the Christian faith, for the pagans might suspect that the prophecies of Christ—which preachers use to convert them—were forgeries, if the Jews did not testify to their authenticity.2 These theological doctrines directly influenced Aquinas's socialteaching .3 Thus he justifies the Jew's servile political and economic status on the grounds of the culpa- ludaeorum, the guilt the Jews incurred by crucifying Christ. The Jews are being punished by God, he claims, and their inferior status is part of that punishment. In drawing out the implications of Paul's hopeful vision of the ultimate conversion of the Jews, Aquinas manages to turn a positive into a negative. God, he claims, has ordained that the Jews remain blind to Christian truth until the end of time; hence missionary efforts among them are unlikely to bear fruit. At times, however, theology could work in favor of tolerance; for instance, Aquinas argues that Jewish worship should be permitted because of the inadvertent witness such worship gives to Christ. But theology could serve only as a very broad guide to policy. Given both the generality and incommensurability of the dogmas pertaining to Jews, it was inevitable that other factors would determine the specific shape of law and social teaching in the High Middle Ages. The most important of these factors was fear of Jews. Aquinas, like almost all Christians of his era, believed Jews were profoundly dangerous and that contact with them should be avoided whenever possible. In his writings on Jews, evidence of this fear manifests itself everywhere: Christians, he wrote, should not marry Jews...