The Grey Book: A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers ruleSnoek, Johan M.
Religion
The Grey Book: A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers rule
Snoek, Johan M.
Antisemitism; Christianity and other religions -- Judaism; Judaism -- Relations -- Christianity; Protestant churches -- Europe
I have tried to give the answers to some questions related to our subject,
but there remain many unanswered questions. It is beyond the scope of this
investigation, to analyse the influence of Luther's attitude towards the
Jews upon the German Protestants. Suffice it to say, that many anti-Semites
quoted from Luther's brochure "Concerning the Jews and their Lies" (1542),
and not from his earlier: "Jesus was born a Jew". (1523) The anti-Jewish
sermons of St. Chrysostom, preached at Constantinople at about the turn of
the 4th century, are well-known. We have not investigated as to how far
these sermons had an influence upon the Eastern Churches in our time.
<287>
Another question: What exactly was the influence of the Lutheran conception
of the "two dominions" through which God rules this world (the spiritual one,
or the Church, and the secular one, or the "worldly authorities") on the
attitude of the Lutheran Churches towards the persecuted Jews? Why did the
Lutheran Churches in Denmark, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden denounce anti-
Semitism whilst the record of the Lutheran Churches in America is poor in
this respect?
The people, according to Luther, have not the right to resist the
authorities; only princes have. Was there a notable difference between the
Lutheran Churches and the Churches of Calvinist origin regarding their
attitude towards the "ungodly government" of Hitler in the 20th century,
just as such a difference is said to have existed in the 16th century?
What about possible differences between continental and Anglo-Saxon
Protestants regarding their theological conception of the Jews, between
Protestant Churches in the West and Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe,
between non-Roman Catholic Churches and the Church of Rome?
How far did the conception of St. Paul about the people of Israel, as
expounded in Romans 9-11, encourage the Churches to stand up for the Jews,
or how far did the opinion that the Church has "replaced" Israel as the
people of the Covenant, prevent Churches from taking action?
We have hardly touched on practical questions such as the dilemma of
whether "to speak or to save" ("reden oder retten").
It would be easy to make up a much longer list of unanswered questions, but
it is difficult to establish facts even though they happened in our lifetime,
and it is even more difficult to interpret them correctly. I can only hope
that the documentation provided by this book will stimulate others to further
study and investigation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account