Description
Echoes of Contempt is an engaging and vivid account of the tragic history of the church’s relationship with Jewish communities over two millennia.
Beginning with the Jerusalem house church, the book traces that history through medieval pogroms and the Parisian salons of the Enlightenment, right up to the present-day focus on the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Drawing on a wide range of sources and his own extensive knowledge, the author shows that, far from being something new, Judeophobia is a recycling of misinformation, prejudice, and hatred. The old lies are echoed in the present at political rallies, church conferences, and in classrooms.
While the book is accessible to those who have very little previous knowledge of the subject, it is well-researched and retains a sophisticated approach.
It is more than a reminder of the church’s complicity in the centuries of contempt that led to Auschwitz–it is a call to action. It will challenge many to think again.
“Bruce Thompson has for many years been on a heroic quest for justice. . . . Reading his searing dissection of the church’s antisemitism makes uncomfortable reading, not just from revisiting and learning anew about the notorious pogroms, property theft, and forced expulsions that eventually led humanity to the Holocaust, but also about the human connivances that caused so much suffering. . . . I am heartened that there is the eloquence, compassion, and reason of Bruce Thompson.”
–Gillian Walnes, Co-founder and Honorary Vice President, Anne Frank Trust UK
“In an excellent, clearly written, and accessible book, Bruce Thompson outlines the baleful, shameful, and wholly regrettable history of Judeophobia. It begins with the early church and with deteriorating relations between Jewish Christians and the Jewish synagogue, and ends . . . with timely warnings about present-day antagonism towards the State of Israel, which so easily leads to antisemitism and condemnation of the Jewish people. . . . Antisemitism is still rearing its ugly head and for this attitude to turn to verbal abuse and then to violence, all it takes is for good people to do nothing. . . . May we all resist such an eventuality.”
–R. Geoffrey Harris, Lecturer at Lincoln School of Theology, University of Lincoln
“This is not a comfortable book for Christians to read, but that makes it all the more salutary. With passion, erudition, and unswerving honesty, Bruce Thompson charts two thousand years of Christian Judeophobia, pointing out how contagious this deadly virus has proved to the societies in which it has taken root–our own societies. . . . Hope of change can only begin through facing the facts, and this book leaves no excuse for ignorance.”
–Michael G. Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield and Chair of the Council of Christians and Jews
Bruce D. Thompson is a British Methodist minister of thirty years. Having served in Manchester and Somerset, he is currently chair of the Lincolnshire Methodist District. As a member of the Council of Christians and Jews and a friend of several Muslim associations, Bruce is passionate about building better relations across the faiths. He is an experienced blogger and broadcaster and the author of two previous books.
