The Salvation of Israel investigates Christianity's eschatological Jew: the role and characteristics of the Jews at the end of days in the Christian imagination. It explores the depth of Christian ambivalence regarding these Jews, from Paul's Epistle to the Romans, through late antiquity and the Middle Ages, to the Puritans of the seventeenth century. Jeremy Cohen contends that few aspects of a religion shed as much light on the character and the self-understanding of its adherents as its expectations for the end of time. Moreover, eschatological beliefs express and mold an outlook toward nonbelievers, situating them in an overall scheme of human history and conditioning interaction with them as that history unfolds.

Cohen's close readings of biblical commentary, theological texts, and Christian iconography reveal the dual role of the Jews of the last days. For rejecting belief and salvation in Jesus Christ, they have been linked to the false messiah-the Antichrist, the agent of Satan and the exemplary embodiment of evil. Yet from its inception, Christianity has also hinged its hopes for the second coming on the enlightenment and repentance of the Jews; for then, as Paul prophesized, "all Israel will be saved."

In its vast historical scope, from the ancient Mediterranean world of early Christianity to seventeenth-century England and New England, The Salvation of Israel offers a nuanced and insightful assessment of Christian attitudes toward Jews, rife with inconsistency and complexity, thus contributing significantly to our understanding of Jewish-Christian relations.

About the Author

Jeremy Cohen is the Spiegel Family Foundation Professor of European Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of six books, including A Historian in Exile, and a four-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award.

Reviews

Readers familiar with Cohen's previous scholarship will expect that the author's careful reading of primary sources from the late antique through early modern past will not only enhance our understanding of earlier eras but will also inform how we understand ourselves in our own present day, and they will not be disappointed. By calling attention to the many roles and faces of eschatological Jews in the construction of Christian as well as Western self-consciousness, Cohen has begun an important conversation.

* Journal of Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501764721
Author Jeremy Cohen
Format Hardback
Page Count 344
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 22mm