The IEG cordially invites you to participate online in the public research colloquium with Senior Research Fellow Prof. Dr Stephen Burnett from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA. He will speak on the topic "Martin Luther and the Jews", followed by a discussion. Stephen Burnett is a Senior Research Fellow at the IEG from the end of May to mid-June 2025. Digital participation is possible on Webex; see link below. The course language is English. Stephen Burnett writes about his lecture: ‘My book project provides a substantive, new interpretation of Luther’s three anti-Jewish polemics of 1543 using insights from early modern German Jewish history, the study of Christian Hebraism, and recent scholarship on Protestant sectarians such as the Sabbatarians. My study began with a close textual analysis of On the Jews and their Lies and evaluated the extent to which it differed from Luther’s earlier views of his Jewish contemporaries. I have also considered Luther’s new willingness in 1543 to impose the kinds of limitations upon Jews that had been used against Sectarians since the mid-1530s. Finally, I compared Luther’s rhetoric against ‘the Jews’ with his earlier uses of it against his many foes over the course of his career. I conclude that Luther sought in his 1543 polemics to discredit ‘the Jews’ in the eyes of would-be judaizers (such as the Sabbatarians and Christian Hebraists) as liars in league with the devil. He urged princes to restrain Jews from harming Christians through punitive policies, and pastors to warn their parishioners shun Jews. The book will have six chapters, the first three on ‘the Jews’ in Luther’s theology (1), his interactions with Jewish contemporaries (2), and his perceptions of ‘Judaizers’ from 1536-1542 (3), the year he decided to write against Jews. The fourth and fifth chapters will involve discussions of Luther’s On the Jews and their Lies (4), and his other two 1543 writings, On the Ineffable Name, and On the Last Words of David. The final chapter will assess the political and theological impact of the 1543 polemics in Germany from 1543 to 1580. Topics for discussion include, (1) Defining the proper ‘context’ for interpreting Luther’s 1543 anti-Jewish polemics; and (2) Explaining Luther’s vicious characterization of Jews in 1543.’ Image copyright: private