Religious antisemitism

Anti-Judaism in Christian theology is a phenomenon distinctly different from Anti-Semitism. Anti-Judaism is a theological position taken by the Catholic Church in which Judaism is demeaned and rejected because of its failure to embrace Jesus Christ as the Messiah. This has led to Christianity ignoring its Jewish roots on the one hand and on the other it has contributed to full blown Anti-Semitism.

The rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah by the Jewish establishment of the first century led to the eventual parting of the spiritual ways between the Jewish Christians and those Jews who did not share their beliefs. In 135 the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans led to the final break with Rabbi Akiva declaring Bar Kochba the Messiah. Jewish Christians had been willing to fight along side their fellow Jews, but they felt unable to continue after Akiva's assertion.

The Jewish / Christian debate and dialogue moved from polemic to bitter verbal and written attacks one against the other. Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho the Jew [1] was a polemical debate giving the Christian assertions for the Messiahship of Jesus.

Justin made use of a fictional character called Trypho on which to construct his arguments. A cursory look at the Dialogue shows that Anti-Judaism is expressed by one of the Early Church's leading teachers. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, of the 4th century is equally negative in his treatment of Judaism as Justin Martyr's writings of in the 2nd Century. Though Chrysostom means 'the golden-mouthed' his 8 polemical sermons based on John’s Gospel are full of venom and hate toward Judaism and the Jews. [2] One explanation for his vicious attack was that he wished to warn Christians not to have any contact with Judaism because of the attraction that some Christians felt towards the synagogue, and his purpose was not primarily to attack the Jews, but rather to keep Christians away from the rival religion.

It was during the 5th and 6th centuries that Chrysostom’s writings found influence with the ascendancy of the Church to a place of political power. More recently, efforts have been made to counteract the effects of Anti-Judaism.