<i>Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs</i> (review)
Carole Straw
Reviewed by: Christian Memories of the Maccabean Martyrs Carole Straw Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski . Martyrs. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2009 Pp. xii + 250. $79.95. A scholar Jewish-Christian relations, bears a heavy moral burden in this study 2 Maccabees 7 and 4 Maccabees. "[T]he question ethically remembering traditions martyrs intersects with how historian ought to confront ethical patterns violence against Jews over ages that culminated Holocaust" (173). In other words, necessary, though insufficient, root Shoah springs from early attitudes toward Jews, which "propagated violence, both physical ideological" Using linguistic, postmodern, postcolonial theories, as well memory studies, illuminates thought suborned "colonized" key eras: age martyrs, imperial Christianity, Carolingian Empire, Investiture Controversy reform, Crusades, including Jewish views after Rhineland massacres 1096, cult [End Page 473] fifteenth- sixteenth-century Cologne, ending brief examples humanists dealt While is malleable, reflecting local historical conditions, identifies core teaching "supersessionism" central problem. Supersessionism "phrase regime" "differend," which, like Holocaust denial, puts double bind: they cannot prove their case when all witnesses are dead (169-70, following J.-F. Lyotard). silenced because answer same idiom oppressor posed question. This disconnection dislocation marginalizes Jews. Christians create stereotypes, "virtual" whose identity molded by Christians' needs. The were appropriated manipulated, serve "usable past" for Christians, who claimed superseded God's chosen people rejected Christ Messiah. history (in so many words) highjacked read actors events Old Testament symbolically types foreshadowing those New. claim be "true" meaning Law, reject understanding, become authentic elect. makes converse supersession his test: what extent do respect died Mosaic law covenant God Israel? Or instead defined agenda made them part an elect stretching Abel present, testaments, i.e. God? At best, writing about "allosemitic," or neutral, stressing unity continuity old new dispensations, emphasize opposition new, being anti-Jewish hostile. problem, however, believe God, Testaments. Even if some appreciate customs more than others, no writers see own terms. supersessionism prism distorting relations vision fragmentary, only one angle paradoxical lens through view order things. relationship dialectic unity, diachronic synchronic, immanent yet transcendent. dispensation opposes carnal realm spiritual, but it reaches spiritual: letter║→spirit, body║→soul, outer║→inner, visible║→invisible, hidden║→revealed, symbol║→reality, earth║→heaven, death║→life, etc. understanding fundamental thought, elaborated Pauline books, skeleton supporting body exegesis (see Henri de Lubac, Maurice Pontet, et al.). Given carnality spirituality possess wealth associations even at beginning can misleading consider individual remembrances apart tradition. Distinctions between fathers Augustine, Chrysostom, Gregory I...
Journal of Early Christian Studies