The Jews in Christian Art: An Illustrated History. - book reviews

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 7, 1997

by Heinz Schreckenberg (Continuum Books, 400 pages, $120 hardcover): This book of illustrations focuses on one less savory aspect of church history: the Christian depiction of Jews, which tends to reflect -- sometimes in spectacularly crude fashion -- the deeply anti-Semitic impulses of much of Christian theology and biblical exegesis.

Here we see, systematically organized and glossed all the iconographic conventions: Jews with horns, Jews with dunce caps, Jews leering at Christian women, Jews drinking the blood of ritually sacrificed Christian children. It's enough to make most Christians wince. And that, precisely, is what it should do. The Jews in Christian Art is intended as a contribution to art history, but for Christians concerned at all about the role Christian anti-Semitism has played in the tragedies of our time, the book is deeply sobering. At $120, it's by no means a casual purchase, but looking at these images, page after disturbing page, could awaken a new resolve to press on in constructing