[MLUG - DISCUSSION] [RELIGION] Unsettling History of That Joyous 'Hallelujah'

[Mike Miller]

On Mon, 9 Apr 2007, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> If the article had told of how Christians through the ages are guilty of 
> antisemitism, I would have wholeheartedly, albeit regrettably, have to 
> have agreed.  But the article is really an attack not on those 
> unfortunate actions, but upon the whole of Christianity itself.

For me it didn't come across that way -- it is just an article about the 
meaning of the song to the people of that time and place.


> For example, by a rather clever turn of phrase, the writer makes 
> "typology" seem almost akin to the Klu Klax Klan, and certainly nothing 
> that any modern enlightened person would agree to.  But in fact, it is 
> pretty much a cornerstone of Christianity, certainly it is extremely 
> prominent in the New Testament.  As such, the author was really saying 
> that the whole message of Christianity is antisemitic.  It is perhaps a 
> subtle point, but basically the ideas in his article I have seen in 
> books written by Jews in the first millennia, on the bookshelf of 
> Orthodox Jewish relatives of mine, as it happens.  It critiques the 
> Pauline interpretation of Old Testament Scripture, declaring it as 
> antisemitic.  Really it is revisiting the argument that dominates many 
> of the discussions that took place between Jesus and the Pharisees in 
> the gospel of John.

Typology may be a cornerstone of Christianity, but it isn't a cornerstone 
that I've even heard of before and I was in Catholic CCD classes for 10 
years.  (Yes, they were crappy teachers, but still...)

I would say that the author was saying that the Christians in Handel's 
time and place were very anti-Semitic.  You know, almost any tight group 
has some kind of enemy.  The middle-eastern leaders often use America (The 
Great Satan) as an enemy to unite the people behind them.

I still don't see you finding anything *wrong* in the article.

Mike