ABSTRACT

Modern nationalism, ethnocentrism, and racism continued to stress the stateless situation of the Jewish people as well as the "insider-outsider" distinction earlier nurtured and developed by Christianity. The systematically elaborated analyses have led scholars increasingly into the genesis and development of Christian antisemitism. Medieval Jews enjoyed delineated rights that generally meant that in the secular world the socioeconomic status of the Jewish communities was more elevated than that of the Christian peasantry. Antisemitism was woven with renewed intensity into the fabric of modern society during the Reformation, which became one more stage in the reinforcement of the Jewish danger to Christian society. Institutionalized support for Jewish-Christian dialogue has reinforced scriptural and theological scholarship, which in turn has served to inform institutional leaders. The Reformation had introduced or religiously legitimized the fragmentation of Christian European civilization and also intensified the antisemitism that was cancerously present in Christianity.