Thomas Aquinas on the Jews: Theology, Tolerance, and Duality
This paper examines Thomas Aquinas's views on Jewish people and the Jewish religion, a subject that has received comparatively little scholarly attention despite Aquinas's outsized influence on Christian theology. Drawing on Aquinas's own writings in the Summa Theologiae alongside secondary sources by Hood and Synan, the paper traces Aquinas's use of Augustine and Aristotle, his defense of Jewish election under the Old Law, and his simultaneous perpetuation of stereotypes regarding usury and the killing of Christ. The paper argues that an unresolved duality — between rational sympathy and moral condemnation — ultimately undermines the tolerant strand in Aquinas's treatment of Jews.
- Introduction: Aquinas as Theologian and Philosopher: Establishes Aquinas's theological authority and gap in Jewish scholarship
- Aquinas's Sources and His Interest in Jewish Sects: Augustine's influence and Aquinas on the Pharisees
- Aquinas's Defense of Jews and the Old Law: Aquinas defends Jewish election and Old Law universality
- The Duality: Tolerance Undermined by Stereotyping: Aquinas perpetuates usury and Christ-killer stereotypes
- Scholarly Perspectives on Aquinas and Jewish Tolerance: Hood and Synan analyze Aquinas's contradictory stance
- Conclusion: Duality undermines Aquinas's tolerant arguments on Jews
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in direct quotations from Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, allowing the primary source to speak before analysis is applied — a strong academic practice.
- It identifies a genuine intellectual tension (duality between tolerance and stereotyping) and uses that tension as the central organizing thread, giving the essay a clear analytical spine.
- Secondary sources (Hood and Synan) are deployed purposefully at the end to validate and extend the paper's own conclusions rather than to substitute for original analysis.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of dialectical reading: it presents Aquinas's sympathetic arguments first, then introduces contradictory evidence from the same author to expose an internal inconsistency. This mirrors the scholastic method Aquinas himself used (objection/reply), making the analytical strategy particularly appropriate to the subject matter.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a brief intellectual biography establishing Aquinas's authority, then poses two guiding research questions. It proceeds through alternating examples of tolerance and prejudice drawn from the Summa Theologiae, before invoking Hood (1995) and Synan (1994) to contextualize the findings. The conclusion synthesizes the duality argument. The structure is essentially problem–evidence–synthesis, suitable for a focused analytical essay at the undergraduate level.
Introduction: Aquinas as Theologian and Philosopher
Thomas Aquinas is now an established theologian, but this conclusion has been the result of extensive scholarly work in which he was sometimes categorized as a philosopher and at other times specifically as a Christian philosopher. Close study of scholarly works on Aquinas — including those produced by Gilson, Chenu, Weisheipl, Pesch, Torrell, and others — reveals that Aquinas has never been anything other than a theologian-philosopher of the first order. As Ulrich Kuhn explains, "One misunderstands Thomas from the ground up if one tries to describe him as a philosopher who, in an ancillary way, also tried his hand at revealed theology." (1) Aquinas thus has a lasting influence on theology, and no one appears to have had a more profound impact on Christian theology than he did. His most celebrated work, the Summa Theologiae, was highly regarded in Christian circles and was even considered as important and influential as the Bible itself.
While we know a great deal about Aquinas's views on various Christian issues, not much is known about his views on Jews. For some reason, this subject has not been as extensively explored as it deserves to be. When discussing this subject, two questions appear particularly pertinent. First, what were Aquinas's views on the Jewish religion and its people? Second, how did Aquinas construct those views — what were his sources, and how did his positions affect the persecution of Jews across the world, particularly in Europe?
References
Aquinas, Thomas. Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Volume 2. Anton C. Pegis (Ed.). Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 1997.
Hood, John Y. B. Aquinas and the Jews. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
Synan, Edward A. Review of Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 1 (January 1994).
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