On the Jews and their Lies: Difference between revisions

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Both the editor and publisher of ''On the Jews and Their Lies'' in ''Luther's Works'', express their "great misgivings" about publishing the treatise because of the risk of misuse to "the detriment either of the Jewish people or of Jewish-Christian relations." They state that Luther's work "has played so fateful a role in the development of anti-Semitism in Western Culture," and insist "[s]uch publication is in no way intended as an endorsement of the distorted views of Jewish faith and practice or the defamation of the Jewish people which this treatise contains."<ref name=LutherJews>Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," Tr. Martin H. Bertram, in <cite>Luther's Works</cite> ed. Franklin Sherman (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:123.</ref>

The prevailing view among historians since World War II is Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation. <ref name=Wallmann>Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century", <cite>Lutheran Quarterly</cite> n.s. 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97.</ref> One scholar contends that theseLuther's sentimentsanti-Jewish writings were largely ignored in the 18th and 19th centuries while they were embraced by 20th century anti-Semites.<ref name=Wallmann/>

==Background and synopsis==