In the first three centuries after the crucifixion of Christ, the relationship of the early church with Jews was dominated by anxieties about the identity of Christianity as a separate religious movement whose faithful included Gentiles as well as Jews. The debate between the Apostles Paul and Peter over circumcision and the decision to abandon compulsory circumcision “in the flesh” (the Old Covenant) did not abate worries that Jews would influence early Christians to “judaize.” This chapter, however, focuses on the perception of the Jew in Christian thought after Christianity became the dominant religious movement in the Mediterranean Basin and Western Europe. Its focus is on thinkers in Western (Roman Catholic) Christendom from the fifth century to the close of the fifteenth century.

What status should Jews, who refuse to accept Christ's Messiahship, have in a majority Christian society? This question exercised the minds and drained the inkwells of numerous Christian theologians throughout the medieval period. As it will become clear in this chapter, the work of St. Augustine in the early fifth century helped to establish a theological framework for a form of grudging religious pluralism in which Jews had a place in Christian society. The Augustinian concept of the Jews as a “witness people” to be tolerated proved to be enduring and became the guiding policy of the papacy. From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries onward, however, many theologians were influenced by the works of Jewish converts to Christianity and their “revelations” about the Talmud and rabbinical Judaism. The result was a distinct hardening of attitudes towards Jews and, in some cases, a renewed questioning of their status in Christian society. Just as significantly, the rise of a polemical Christian tradition that focused on the Talmud was to have very serious consequences for Christian–Jewish relations in the modern era.

St. Augustine's “Witness People”

The first Christian theologian to formulate a clear status for Jews in a majority Christian society was the prolific theolo-gian St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa (354–430). To understand Augustine's doctrine regarding the Jews, it is important to remember the historical context in which the bishop was writing.