Christianity and Anti-Semitism

The relationship between Christianity and antisemitism has a long history. Anti-Jewish sentiments have been expressed by many Christians over the last 2,000 years, but many other Christians, increasingly in recent years, have condemned these sentiments.

There have been philosophical differences between Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism since the outset. Debates between the Early Christians - who at first understood themselves as a movement within Judaism, not as a separate religion - and other Jews initially revolved around the question whether Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah or not, which also encompassed the issue of his divinity. Once gentiles were converted to Christianity, the question arose whether and how far these Gentile Christians were obliged to follow Jewish law in order to follow Jesus (see Paul's Letter to the Galatians). It was decided that gentiles did not have to follow Jewish law (see Antinomianism, Old Testament#Christian view of the Law), but Paul also questioned the validity of Jewish Christian's adherence to the Jewish law in relation to faith in Christ, see also Law and Gospel and Pauline Christianity.

The complete, up-to-date and editable article about Christianity and Anti-Semitism can be found at Wikipedia: Christianity and Anti-Semitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_anti-Semitism