Adversus Judaeos (Ancient Greek: Κατὰ Ἰουδαίων Kata Ioudaiōn, "against the Jews") are a series of fourth century homilies by Saint John Chrysostom directed to members of the church of Antioch of his time, who continued to observe Jewish feasts and fasts. Critical of this, he cast Judaism and the synagogues in his city in a critical and negative light.
There are modern scholars who claim that an abuse of his preaching fed later Christian anti-Semitism, and some, such as Stephen Katz, go even further, saying it was an inspiration for pagan Nazi anti-semitism. Indeed, during World War II, the Nazi Party in Germany abused his homilies, quoting and reprinting them frequently in an attempt to legitimize the Holocaust in the eyes of German and Austrian Christians.[1][2] Anglican priest James Parkes called the writing on Jews "the most horrible and violent denunciations of Judaism to be found in the writings of a Christian theologian".[3] According to historian William I. Brustein, his sermons against Jews gave further momentum to the idea that the Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.[4]
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