The religious revolution that gave rise to the Reformation is invariably associated with the iconic figure Martin Luther. He is popularly heralded as the pugnacious reformer who took his stand against overwhelming odds and initiated changes that have transformed our political and cultural sensibilities, as well as our scriptural and theological dispositions. Whether readers embrace or resist his legacy, we live and labor under his shadow.
Eric W. Gritsch, professor emeritus of church history and former director of the Institute for Luther Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettsyburg, Pa., has contributed a concise and insightful survey of Luther’s most troublesome bequest, his virulently anti-Semitic writings. This testament of hate remains a source of deep embarrassment for all who acknowledge Luther’s genius, most especially those Protestants who identify themselves as Lutherans. Gritsch breaks the habit of avoidance and provides an unflinching examination of Luther’s anti-Semitism.
The book features three sections. Gritsch first maps the landscape of Christian attitudes toward Judaism and the Jewish people. Drawing on the insights of scholars such as Gavin Langmuir, he settles on a definition of anti-Semitism as an irrational hatred of Jews that is sustained by fantasies of a conspiratorial evil, which were invoked to justify crimes ranging from expulsion to murder. Gritsch’s overview moves from the polemical invectives within the New Testament through the teachings of the church fathers that enshrine the theological conviction that the church has replaced the synagogue as the covenantal locus of the divine. This position, commonly known as “supersessionism,” is etched into motifs that are central to the church’s self-understanding. For the most of their faith’s history, Christians have affirmed their theology by negating Judaism. Gritsch shows how Luther fit this pattern.
There is an enormous amount of material here that will shock the uninitiated reader. For example, Luther asserts that unremitting punishments provide “proof that the Jews, surely rejected by God, are no longer his people, and neither is he any longer their God.”
In the final section of this volume, Gritsch reviews some prominent Luther scholars and summarizes their assessments of Luther’s anti-Semitism. He juxtaposes the witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the Lutheran bishop Martin Sasse who “celebrated the burning of the synagogues on November 10, 1938 (Luther’s birthday), with a call for the liberation of Germany from Jewish economic oppression, praising Luther as ‘the greatest anti-Semite of his time’”.
Future generations of Christians will need to reevaluate Luther’s appropriation of the Old Testament, particularly the practice of claiming prophetic promises for the church while reapplying Old Testament denunciations against Judaism. They will need to contend with a Christology that judges Judaism as an obsolete and mistaken tradition. To be certain, there are outstanding Lutheran scholars who have already begun to tackle these challenges. Gritsch provides a helpful reminder that the job is far from concluded.
CHRISTOPHER LEIGHTOn is a Presbyterian teaching elder and executive director of the Institute of Christian and Jews in Baltimore.
