Luther’s Jews by Thomas Kaufmann

Luther's Jews

Author: Thomas Kaufmann

ISBN-13: 9780198738541

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Guideline Price: £18.99

In these days of increasing intolerance toward those who profess a different faith, it may be salutary to consider a startling example from the past. Martin Luther's view of Jews in his work of 1523, "That Jesus Christ was born a Jew", was tolerant by the standards of his time but, 20 years later, he wrote On the Jews and their Lies, a vicious attack on those he regarded as the enemies of Christ.

Kaufmann is at pains to allow for Luther’s troubled state of mind after the death of his beloved young daughter but concludes that “Luther’s anti-Semitism was an integral part of his personality” and derived directly from his theological exegesis of the Old Testament. Luther became “the most fateful figure in German history”; the Nazis claimed his support for their policy of extermination of the Jewish race.

This is a learned dissertation, distilled from extensive study of primary and secondary sources, scrupulously fair, crisply translated and surprisingly relevant today.