The Scholastics and the Jews: Coexistence, Conversion, and the Medieval Origins of Tolerance

Book Synopsis: “Professor Mazza has written an astounding, beautiful work detailing how the Scholastics approached the evangelization and conversion of the Jews over the centuries.” —ROY SCHOEMANAnyone who would better understand the relations between God’s chosen peoples will benefit from a careful reading of this exceptional study.” —ROBERT ROYALIt has become commonplace in Medieval Studies to speak of the “formation of a persecuting society” in Catholic Europe of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The efforts of St. Raymond of Penafort and the Order of Preachers to convert Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians is a conspicuous example. Edmund J. Mazza’s The Scholastics and the Jews, however, marks a major historiographical revision. While in no way diminishing the reality of Jewish suffering across the centuries, Mazza identifies the origins of missionary overtures to non-believers not so much with the drive for homogeneity as for holiness.The Scholastics and the Jews, above all, is devoted to re-discovering a tradition, the development and implementation of a medieval worldview—or sacramentality—that saw the institutions and inhabitants of this world not primarily as means to the pursuit and maintenance of power but as sanctified symbols reflecting God’s own infinite majesty, and at the same time as flesh-and-blood sinners in need of redemption. How this Scholastic “hermeneutic” simultaneously hindered—and helped—the cause of tolerance is a tale largely yet untold.

“Professor Mazza does not take the role of an apologist, nor of a polemicist condemning Catholic ‘intolerance,’ but of a conscientious scholar. This work is indispensable for looking beyond the polemics of this controversial issue to the underlying motivations and characters of the key participants.” —ROY SCHOEMAN, author of Salvation is from the Jews and Honey from the Rock“Edmund Mazza’s new book constitutes a significant step forward in the literature on toleration during the Latin Middle Ages. The Scholastics and the Jews reflects seminal scholarship on a topic that resonates as much today as it did seven hundred years or more in the past.” —CARY J. NEDERMAN, Texas A&M University, author of Worlds of Difference: European Discourses of Toleration, c.1100–c.1550“In The Scholastics and the Jews, Edmund Mazza has successfully challenged long-established historiography that sees the medieval approach to non-Christian religions solely through the lens of power and persecution. He alerts us to the ideals of the medievals that allowed the birth of genuine tolerance that would be bequeathed to the modern world. It is a most welcome answer to the imbalances found in recent scholarship.” —DONALD S. PRUDLO, Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History, Jacksonville State University“In this important book, Professor Mazza carefully, and with great rigor, addresses some of the most salient questions about the relationship between Catholic Scholastic thought and Judaism.” —FRANCIS J. BECKWITH, Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies, Baylor University“Professor Mazza’s treatment displays uncommon fairness, scholarship, insight, wisdom, and grace. Anyone who would better understand the relations between God’s chosen peoples will benefit from a careful reading of this exceptional study.” —ROBERT ROYAL, president of the Faith & Reason Institute“This erudite and deeply thoughtful book provides a welcome corrective to common historical stereotypes, offers an important rebuttal to theories about the origins of modern anti-Semitism, and presents a rich theological reflection on Patristic and Scholastic understandings of sin, sacramentalism, conversion, and religious tolerance.” —CARL E. OLSON, editor of Catholic World Report