Jewish Christian relations

Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record. Focusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, Writing on the Wall takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives. Just like their neighbors throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everyplace--in and around markets, hippodromes, theat...

In history, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been both partners and rivals. The well-known 'parable of the three rings' argues in a beautiful paradox how the religion most beloved by the other two will turn out to be in possession of the true ring. This book collects a number of texts in which not just bilateral religious dialogues but the relations between one's own religion and the two others are documented. The texts translated and studied here, date from the medieval period, both from the East and from the West. It brings together in one volume esteemed writers such as the Jews Judah Halevi, Abraham Ibn Daud, Moses Maimonides, and Ibn Kammuna; the Christians John of Damascus, Paul of Antioch, Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and Nicholas of Cusa; and the Muslims 'Abd al-Jabbar, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Nur-al-Din al-Raniri. The shared knowledge of different religious traditions as testified to in some of these texts, may come as a surprise.

This volume shows through the use of legal sources that law was used to try to erect boundaries between communities in order to regulate or restrict interaction between the faithful and the non-faithful; and at the same time show how these boundaries were repeatedly transgressed and negociated. Muslim law developed a clear legal cadre for dhimmīs, inferior but protected non-Muslim communities (in particular Jews and Christians) and Roman Canon law decreed a similar status for Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. Yet the theoretical hierarchies between faithful and infidel were constantly brought into question in the daily interactions between men and women of different faiths in streets, markets, bath-houses, law courts, etc. The twelve essays in this volume explore these tensions and attempts to resolve them. These contributions show that law was used to try to erect boundaries between communities in order to regulate or restrict interaction between the faithful and the non-fai...

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The intention of this essay is twofold; to extend the time period of my earlier essays on Mary and the biblical heritage and to sketch the developments in the early Church, in spite of their burdens of motifs relating to the Jewish people, so that we can understand our history with an insight into the Church's roots and prepare for a better future in Christian- Jewish relations.

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Resumo Este breve artigo visa a analisar as razões da discriminação e perseguição realizadas pela Monarquia visigótica contra seus súditos judeus entre 589 e 711. Uma vasta legislação canônica e real foi editada nesse período. A reflexão sugerida enfoca a problemática sob a ótica político-religiosa. A busca da unidade territorial e da legitimidade monárquica sofreu inúmeras contestações, geralmente de elementos da nobreza visigótica. A instabilidade gerava uma fraqueza conjuntural e a dificuldade de se estabelecer uma Monarquia forte esbarrava na manutenção do direito da nobreza de eleger seus reis e interferir nos processos políticos. A unidade religiosa serve de bandeira para a busca de uma unidade política e para o fortalecimento da Monarquia. O apoio da Igreja, sacramentando a Monarquia configura-se em gestos diversos, originados a partir do III Concílio de Toledo (589). O reverso da moeda é o apoio do rei aos projetos eclesiásticos, entre os quais a conversão e a submissão dos ...

In history, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been both partners and rivals. The well-known 'parable of the three rings' argues in a beautiful paradox how the religion most beloved by the other two will turn out to be in possession of the true ring. This book collects a number of texts in which not just bilateral religious dialogues but the relations between one's own religion and the two others are documented. The texts translated and studied here, date from the medieval period, both from the East and from the West. It brings together in one volume esteemed writers such as the Jews Judah Halevi, Abraham Ibn Daud, Moses Maimonides, and Ibn Kammuna; the Christians John of Damascus, Paul of Antioch, Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and Nicholas of Cusa; and the Muslims 'Abd al-Jabbar, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and Nur-al-Din al-Raniri. The shared knowledge of different religious traditions as testified to in some of these texts, may come as a surprise.

The current criticism of Christian Zionism comes from many quarters: secularists (both Jews and Gentiles), many religious Jews, Christian Arabists, and Islamists (Hamas cleric Ahmed al-Tamimi identified Christian Zionism as “the greatest danger to world truth, justice, and peace”). Ironically, Christians are among the most vociferous critics of Christian Zionism. An evangelical critic of Zionism, Hank Hanegraaff, writes: “Much of American Middle East policy is influenced by a huge voting bloc of evangelicals who are taught not to question Israel’s divine right to the land... fueled in part by bad theology.” Anglican theologian Stephen Sizer maintains that a distinctive theology embraced by many evangelical Christians, known as dispensational premillennialism, is foundational to Christian Zionism and a root cause of the deadlocked Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict. He writes, “Bad theology is probably the reason why many Christians don’t seem to care.... They hope to be raptured to he...

This volume celebrates the scholarship of Alan Segal. During his prolific career, Alan published ground-breaking studies that shifted scholarly conversations about Christianity, rabbinic Judaism, Hellenism and Gnosticism. Like the subjects of his research, Alan crossed many boundaries. He understood that religions do not operate in academically defined silos, but in complex societies populated by complicated human beings. Alan’s work engaged with a variety of social-scientific theories that illuminated ancient sources and enabled him to reveal new angles on familiar material. This interdisciplinary approach enabled Alan to propose often controversial theories about Jewish and Christian origins. A new generation of scholars has been nurtured on this approach and the fields of early Judaism and Christianity emerge radically redefined as a result.

В статье предложен анализ судебного конфликта между еврейской общиной Бреста и униатским капитулом в 1669–1671 гг. Предполагая построить на месте еврейских домов церковь, брестский капитул потребовал от евреев освободить занимаемое ими церковное владение. Автор дает сравнительный анализ отношений между евреями и униатским и католическим духовенством, а также показывает ритуальные и символические аспекты конфликта, который развивался на фоне сложных отношений между униатским митрополитом и владимирским (брестским) епископом. Несмотря на то что большинство использованных в статье источников опубликовано, обращение к новым подходам из социальной истории и культурной антропологии помогает осветить проблемы религиозного насилия и конфессиональных отношений в новом свете.

Today’s positive relationship with Christians and Christianity challenges the voices of particularism in Jewish tradition. To discern how contemporary Jewish leaders are guiding their communities to think about the place of Jews within the larger human community, this article analyzes commentaries on a selection of Rosh Hashanah prayers from recently published prayer books commonly used in North American congregations. These prayers’ traditional texts themselves engage in a dialectic between universalism and particularism. The commentaries’ responses range along a spectrum, from an embrace of universalism by Reform Jews, to an advocacy also, but not exclusively, for particularism, among the orthodox.

Concentrating on the Orthodox theology of biblical Israel within the context of fulfillment theology, the argument is that the early Church envisioned itself as the continuation of Israel of the Jewish Bible rather than its replacement. In the author’s view, the current understanding of the distinction between replacement and fulfillment theology, the early Christian theological conception of the Church as Israel, and the ways in which both contemporaneous pagans and Jews viewed the nascent Christian faith support this assertion.

Economists increasingly highlight the role that human capital formation, institutions and cultural transmission may play in shaping health, knowledge and wealth. We study one of the most remarkable instances in which religious norms and childcare practices had a major impact: the history of the Jews in central and eastern Europe from 1500 to 1930. We show that while birth rates were about the same, infant and child mortality among Jews was much lower and accounted for the main difference in Jewish versus non-Jewish natural population growth. Jewish families routinely adopted childcare practices that recent medical research has shown as enhancing children's well-being.

The Religious Other in the Histories of Gregory of Tours The question of the religious other is discussed from the perspective Gregory of Tours himself would have identified with: namely, that of eternal salvation (a necessary prerequisite for which is embracing the Catholic doctrine) or condemnation Arians, Jews and Catholics lapsed into heresy shall eventually face. Gregory’s portrayal of the followers of Arius (who, according to him, not only cannot be called Christians, but follow in footsteps of pagan Roman persecutors of Christianity) is discussed; the futility of theological debate as a mean to influence those non‑Trinitarians is showed and the miraculous is stressed as the only effective tool of gaining them for the Church. Secondly, the question of Jews in Gregory’s narrative: their loss of the chosen people status, their inability to read the Old Testament Christologically and their not partaking in the miraculous that proved so decisive for the conversion of Arians is str...

Concentrating on the Orthodox theology of biblical Israel within the context of fulfillment theology, the argument is that the early Church envisioned itself as the continuation of the Israel of the Jewish Bible rather than its replacement. In the author’s view, the current understanding of the distinction between replacement and fulfillment theology, the early Christian theological conception of the Church as Israel, and the ways in which both contemporaneous pagans and Jews viewed the nascent Christian faith support this assertion.

On March 4th, 1233, in his bull Sufficere debuerat perfidie Iudeorum, Pope Gregory IX complains to the bishops and archbishops of Germany of the many “perfidies” of the German Jews, including their “blasphemies” against the Christian religion, which, he fears, may have an ill effect on Christians, particularly converts from Judaism. He orders the bishops to prohibit Jews from presuming to dispute with Christians and to prevent Christians from participating in such disputations through ecclesiastical censure. Gregory clearly thought that it was dangerous to allow informal discussions or debates about religion between Jews and Christian laymen. At the same time, he was instrumental in the promotion of the two new mendicant orders and in the encouragement of their missionary efforts towards Jews (and to a lesser extent Muslims). Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Dominicans in particular became specialists of religious disputation. Laymen were increasingly ...

This thesis will approach Christian-authored works of demonic ritual magic (c1350-c1580) as narratives that offer us a window into the individual and collective identity-formation of Christians in German-speaking premodern Europe. This project is meant to address what I view as a three-pronged problem: 1) we do not always view esoteric disciplines (particularly magic) as part of the lived experience of religion in premodernity; 2) the failure to acknowledge esotericism as part of the lived experience of religion in premodernity is rooted in academic apprehensiveness about accepting esoteric texts as valid sources of knowledge about premodern religion; 3) this apprehensiveness prevents us from seeing the full value of esoteric texts—from acknowledging that they have much to tell us about the premodern social milieu, and, moreover, much to tell us about the how process of Christian identity-formation unfolded in this social context. Part I of the dissertation will seek to contextualiz...

Elected in 1723, Isaac de Sequeira Samuda (1681–1729) was the first Jewish Fellow of the Royal Society. He had arrived in London just a few years earlier, escaping from the Portuguese Inquisition. Despite his past, he had no difficulty in establishing links with his country's diplomatic representatives in London. A physician and adviser on scientific subjects, he became a conduit between the emerging world of Portuguese astronomy and the British scientific community. He reported to the Royal Society on astronomical observations made in the new observatories in Lisbon and helped with the acquisition of scientific instruments and books destined for Portugal. These activities were facets of Samuda's unusual career and the diverse though often converging associations that he established until his death. As the member of a network active in the diffusion of new ideas and in the modernization of Portuguese science, Samuda can be regarded as an estrangeirado , as this term has come...

The quote, in which the people of the Island of Barataria liken Don Quijote's squire Sancho Panza to the figure of King Solomon, constitutes the only explicit mention of the legendary Biblical monarch in Cervantes' entire masterpiece. This chapter seeks to show that this allusion to the figure of Solomon is actually the culmination of a series of intertextual echoes of Hebrew legends in Don Quijote . Although the association between the squire Sancho Panza and King Solomon is evident in different ways throughout the novel, the chapter focuses especially on a series of events linked to the episode of Sancho's governorship in Barataria. The shadow of King Solomon in Don Quijote is not only that of the monarch described in several books of the Bible, but also the mythical Solomon popularized in diverse Hebrew and specifically Judeo-Spanish legends that circulated throughout Spain in the Middle Ages. Keywords: Barataria; Don Quijote; Hebrew legends; Judeo-Spanish legends; King Solomon; Sancho's governorship; squire Sancho Panza

Historically and culturally, there is a deep divide of misunderstanding and feeling of mistrust between the Jewish people1 and the religious organization of Christianity and its adherents. This rift is directly responsible for a significant portion of the past two thousand years of Jewish suffering and Christian misunderstanding as well as the current divide between the two faith traditions.2 Contemporary efforts to missionize Jewish individuals as part of the Great Commission has only further hindered relationships deeper than a superficial secular connection. In the early life of Christianity, however, there were more similarities than differences to the point where one would struggle with telling the two apart.

The current criticism of Christian Zionism comes from many quarters: secularists (both Jews and Gentiles), many religious Jews, Christian Arabists, and Islamists (Hamas cleric Ahmed al-Tamimi identified Christian Zionism as “the greatest danger to world truth, justice, and peace”). Ironically, Christians are among the most vociferous critics of Christian Zionism. An evangelical critic of Zionism, Hank Hanegraaff, writes: “Much of American Middle East policy is influenced by a huge voting bloc of evangelicals who are taught not to question Israel’s divine right to the land... fueled in part by bad theology.” Anglican theologian Stephen Sizer maintains that a distinctive theology embraced by many evangelical Christians, known as dispensational premillennialism, is foundational to Christian Zionism and a root cause of the deadlocked Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict. He writes, “Bad theology is probably the reason why many Christians don’t seem to care.... They hope to be raptured to he...

British Library Harley MS 3954's Book of Sir John Mandeville has ninety-nine images, and another thirty-five blanks, carefully framed in thin lines of ink as part of the ruling of the manuscript. As is so often the case, the blanks appear more frequently toward the end. On the final folio (69v) there appears a neatly framed blank space (Figure 1). The manuscript's final text block appears just below this space and tells us of "a bok of Latyn that conteyned al that and myche more, aff wych bok the mappa mundi was mad." As if to tantalize the reader, "mappa mundi" is rubricated and so stands out from the black ink in which the rest of the page (and the book) is written. While I sat there, staring at the blank space, and the red name for an absent image, I caught myself dreaming of finding a new mappa mundi hidden within that empty frame, the perfect place for a map of the world according to Mandeville. What would it look like, and what would imagining it te...