ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Albert's writings, his views of Jews and Judaism, and discusses his relationship to the increasingly aggressive missionary effort directed toward the Jews by Albert's fellow Dominicans. Albert sometimes appeals to Jewish scholars for support and does not hesitate to praise their philosophical accomplishments when he finds himself in agreement with them. Nevertheless he does not fail to introduce certain attacks on flaws in the Jewish character that are grounded in religious ethics, customs or in the Jews' physical constitution. Inflammatory proclamations of Jewish guilt stemming from the crucifixion were features central to the Jewish-Christian public disputations of the thirteenth century, and Christian polemicists repeatedly insisted that contemporary Jews endure exile and collective punishment because they killed Jesus on the Cross. Albert the Great was certainly one of the most eminent Dominican theologians about the middle of the thirteenth century, serving as regent master in Paris until 1248.
