In reply to:
[color:"blue"]By the way, was Luther anti-semitic?

Short answer to this perennial question: Not in the post-1930 sense.
Slightly longer answer: Luther apparently made his infamous statement(s) upon frustration that the Jews whom he attempted to win to Christ were largely unresponsive. Similar in my mind to Moses' striking the rock: understandable frustration, but not a response of faith. His statements should be weighed against the balance of his correspondence, and that of his generation, in which hyperbolic invective was employed to degree we seldom see today. His words on this subject were referenced as authoritative by the Nazis, to his shame; but no case can be made that Luther himself would have desired the actuals horrors that occured. Should he have kept his mouth shut? Yes. Was he anti-Semitic in a racial sense? No.

This has been discussed by my Jewish wife and myself. It took her a long time and study to get to the point where she could accept Luther's place in the history of the church, but she was eventually able to .

Others will have to provide a biblio for you on this.


In Christ,
Paul S