I don’t read tons of Catholic (noun) history. I’m not a member of the Church of Rome. I am an Orthodox (catholic adjective), and the parish I attend is under the Patriarchate of Antioch.
Good for you, reading +Chrysostom - I hope you are doing it in Greek, as most English translations of +Chrysostom are like watching paint dry on a very humid day, sadly. An organization has actually originated in our parish to remedy that.
You’re simply wrong. +Chrysostom railed against the Judaizers, early Christians who tried to live in both traditions and insisted that converts had to become Jews before being baptized.
+Chrysostom spoke bluntly, and his words could really cut when he was trying to make a point.
But if you choose because of that to find his writings to be anti-Jew as opposed to anti-Judaizer, in my opinion (as you said, it’s an open forum and I am therefore entitled to give an opinion), you are likely LOOKING for anti-Semitism. If I am correct, that’s frankly your choice and your problem.
Would you be good enough to drop us a line when the translations are done? I don’t speak Greek (a little Latin and German only), but some of the translations seem a bit forced even for me.
I do study the NT in Greek, although I have not read Chrysostom in Greek. I am spend most of my time in Hebrew and Aramaic. Todah!
Nothing is more miserable than those people who never failed to attack their own salvation. When there was need to observe the Law, they trampled it under foot. Now that the Law has ceased to bind, they obstinately strive to observe it. What could be more pitiable that those who provoke God not only by transgressing the Law but also by keeping it? On this account Stephen said: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit", not only by transgressing the Law but also by wishing to observe it at the wrong time.
Eight Homilies Against the Jews
St. John was a segregationalist, in a city where religions mingled, perhaps, too freely.
(4) Let me tell you this, not from guesswork but from my own experience. Three days ago-believe me, I am not lying-I saw a free woman of good bearing, modest, and a believer. A brutal, unfeeling man, reputed to be a Christian (for I would not call a person who would dare to do such a thing a sincere Christian) was forcing her to enter the shrine of the Hebrews and to swear there an oath about some matters under dispute with him. She came up to me and asked for help; she begged me to prevent this lawless violence-for it was forbidden to her, who had shared in the divine mysteries, to enter that place. I was fired with indignation, I became angry, I rose up, I refused to let her be dragged into that transgression, I snatched her from the hands of her abductor. I asked him if were a Christian, and he said he was. Then I set upon him vigorously, charging him with lack of feeling and the worst stupidity; I told him he was no better off than a mule if he, who professed to worship Christ, would drag someone off to the dens of the Jews who had crucified him. I talked to him a long time, drawing my lesson from the Holy Gospels; I told him first that it was altogether forbidden to swear and that it was wrong to impose the necessity of swearing on anyone. I then told him that he most not subject a baptize believer to this necessity. In fact, he must not force even an unbaptized person to swear an oath.
(Homily III.4)
To put this in perspective, the Church today advises against combined prayers and mixed marriages, even though exceptions are sometimes made. However, the Church does not teach that "No Jew adores God" (III.2), quite the opposite: to the Jews "belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ ... for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." (The Church and non-Christians , scroll to 839-845)