ACLD: One of the crucial points drawn out in your
Augustine and the Jews is that Augustine became something of an
apologist for Judaism against Faustus. Particularly, Augustine defended the
importance of Jesus’ Jewishness. Do you think that Augustine was somewhat
unique among the Christians of his time?
PF: Against Faustus, Augustine is an apologist for catholicism. In its defense, he deploys
a rhetorically constructed "hermeneutical Jew" and "hermeneutical
Judaism" that serves to articulate catholic theological points of
principle (creation, incarnation, fleshly resurrection). His Jewish Jesus —
halachically observant, traditionally Jewish, and so on — is part of this
scheme. Origen, another close reader of texts, also observed against Celsus
that Jesus kept the law; but Augustine's Jewish Jesus is much more fully
developed, because of the particulars of Faustus' attack. As a 4th-century
theologian, Augustine made a theological case for a law-observant Jesus
that happens to make good, modern,
secular historiographical sense as well: to wit, Jesus as a truly human being
("incarnate," in Augustine's language) lived within — not against —
the religious traditions/context of his people. In this respect, Augustine went
further in acknowledging the normative Judaism of Jesus (and of Paul) than many
of our colleagues do!
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