Jewish Martyrs in the Pagan and Christian Worlds

Jewish Martyrs in the Pagan and Christian Worlds
Author: Shmuel Shepkaru
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521842815

This book presents a linear history of Jewish martyrdom, from the Hellenistic period to the high Middle Ages. Following the chronology of sources, the study challenges the general consensus that martyrdom was an original Hellenistic Jewish idea. Instead, Jews like Philo and Josephus internalized the idealized Roman concept of voluntary death and presented it as an old Jewish practice. The centrality of self-sacrifice in Christianity further stimulated the development of rabbinic martyrology and the talmudic guidelines for passive martyrdom. However, when forced to choosed between death and conversion in medieval Christendom, Ashkenazic Jews went beyond these guidelines, sacrificing themselves and loved ones. Through death not only did they attempt to prove their religiosity, but also to disprove the religious legitimacy of their Christian persecutors. While martyrs and martyrologies intended to show how Judaisim differed from Christianity, they, in fact, reveal a common mindset.

New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations

New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations
Author: Elisheva Carlebach
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2011-11-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004221174

This work revisits the millennia-old Jewish-Christian encounter by providing a nuanced understanding of its challenges as well as presenting new perspectives on hitherto neglected areas of cultural, religious, and social interchange and influence.

Jews and Christians in Thirteenth-Century France

Jews and Christians in Thirteenth-Century France
Author: E. Baumgarten
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137317582

A period of great change for Europe, the thirteenth-century was a time of both animosity and intimacy for Jewish and Christian communities. In this wide-ranging collection, scholars discuss the changing paradigms in the research and history of Jews and Christians in medieval Europe, discussing law, scholarly pursuits, art, culture, and poetry.

Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe

Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe
Author: Robert Chazan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2010-09-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139493043

This book re-evaluates the prevailing notion that Jews in medieval Christian Europe lived under an appalling regime of ecclesiastical limitation, governmental exploitation and expropriation, and unceasing popular violence. Robert Chazan argues that, while Jewish life in medieval Western Christendom was indeed beset with grave difficulties, it was nevertheless an environment rich in opportunities; the Jews of medieval Europe overcame obstacles, grew in number, explored innovative economic options, and fashioned enduring new forms of Jewish living. His research also provides a reconsideration of the legacy of medieval Jewish life, which is often depicted as equally destructive and projected as the underpinning of the twentieth-century catastrophes of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Dr Chazan's research proves that, although Jewish life in the medieval West laid the foundation for much Jewish suffering in the post-medieval world, it also stimulated considerable Jewish ingenuity, which lies at the root of impressive Jewish successes in the modern West.

Christian–Jewish Relations 1000–1300

Christian–Jewish Relations 1000–1300
Author: Anna Sapir Abulafia
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2024-08-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040105424

This new and revised edition of Christian–Jewish Relations 1000–1300 expands its survey of medieval Christian–Jewish relations in England, Spain, France and Germany with new material on canon law, biblical exegesis and Christian–Jewish polemics, along with an updated Further Reading section. Anna Sapir Abulafia’s balanced yet humane account analyses the theological, socio-economic and political services Jews were required to render to medieval Christendom. The nature of Jewish service varied greatly as Christian rulers struggled to reconcile the desire to profit from the presence of Jewish men and women in their lands with conflicting theological notions about Judaism. Jews meanwhile had to deal with the many competing authorities and interests in the localities in which they lived; their continued presence hinged on a fine balance between theology and pragmatism. The book examines the impact of the Crusades on Christian–Jewish relations and analyses how anti-Jewish libels were used to define relations. Making adept use of both Latin and Hebrew sources, Abulafia draws on liturgical and exegetical material, and narrative, polemical and legal sources, to give a vivid and accurate sense of how Christians interacted with Jews and Jews with Christians.

Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity

Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity
Author: Radka Fialová
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2022-11-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110796406

Papers collected in this volume try to illuminate various aspects of philosophical theology dealt with by different Jewish and early Christian authors and texts (e.g. the Acts of the Apostles, Philo, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus), rooted in and influenced by the Hellenistic religious, cultural, and philosophical context, and they also focus on the literary and cultural traditions of Hellenized Judaism and its reception (e.g. Sibylline Oracles, Prayer of Manasseh), including material culture ("Elephant Mosaic Panel" from Huqoq synagogue). By studying the Hellenistic influences on early Christianity, both in response to and in reaction against early Hellenized Judaism, the volume intends not only to better understand Christianity, as a religious and historical phenomenon with a profound impact on the development of European civilization, but also to better comprehend Hellenism and its consequences which have often been relegated to the realm of political history.

Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times

Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004267840

This volume brings together articles on the cultural, religious, social and commercial interactions among Jews, Christians and Muslims in the medieval and early modern periods. Written by leading scholars in Jewish studies, Islamic studies, medieval history and social and economic history, the contributions to this volume reflect the profound influence on these fields of the volume’s honoree, Professor Mark R. Cohen.

Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity

Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity
Author: Yair Furstenberg
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 565
Release: 2023-03-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004538267

This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of all relevant sources concerning Jewish martyrdom in Antiquity. By viewing these narratives together, tracing their development and comparing them to other traditions, the authors seek to explore how Jewish is Jewish martyrdom? To this end, they analyse the impact of the changing social and religious-cultural circumstances and the interactions with Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. This results in the identification of important continuities and discontinuities. Consequently, while political ideals that are prominent in 2 and 4 Maccabees are remarkably absent from rabbinic sources, the latter reveal a growing awareness of Christian motifs and discourse.

Remembering the Crusades

Remembering the Crusades
Author: Nicholas Paul
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2012-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421406993

Few events in European history generated more historical, artistic, and literary responses than the conquest of Jerusalem by the armies of the First Crusade in 1099. This epic military and religious expedition, and the many that followed it, became part of the collective memory of communities in Europe, Byzantium, North Africa, and the Near East. Remembering the Crusades examines the ways in which those memories were negotiated, transmitted, and transformed from the Middle Ages through the modern period. Bringing together leading scholars in art history, literature, and medieval European and Near Eastern history, this volume addresses a number of important questions. How did medieval communities respond to the intellectual, cultural, and existential challenges posed by the unique fusion of piety and violence of the First Crusade? How did the crusades alter the form and meaning of monuments and landscapes throughout Europe and the Near East? What role did the crusades play in shaping the collective identity of cities, institutions, and religious sects? In exploring these and other questions, the contributors analyze how the events of the First Crusade resonated in a wide range of cultural artifacts, including literary texts, art and architecture, and liturgical ceremonies. They discuss how Christians, Jews, and Muslims recalled and interpreted the events of the crusades and what far-reaching implications that remembering had on their communities throughout the centuries. Remembering the Crusades is the first collection of essays to investigate the commemoration of the crusades in eastern and western cultures. Its unprecedented multidisciplinary and cross-cultural approach points the way to a complete reevaluation of the place of the crusades in medieval and modern societies.

Contextualizing Miracles in the Christian West, 1100-1500

Contextualizing Miracles in the Christian West, 1100-1500
Author: Matthew M. Mesley
Publisher: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2014-12-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0907570321

This volume brings together innovative research on miracles in the Christian West 1100-1500, and includes chapters on Anglo-Norman saints’ cults, late medieval Portugal and the legacy of medieval hagiography in the immediate Post-Reformation period. Contributors investigate miracle narratives in conjunction with broader socio-cultural ideals, practices and developments in medieval society. They also reassess the legacy of Peter Brown, challenge established dichotomies such as ‘medicine and religion’, and examine relics, lay beliefs and the liturgical evidence of a saint’s cult, moving beyond the traditional focus on canonization. Medical history features prominently alongside other approaches; these clarify the contexts of our sources, and demonstrate the methodological vibrancy in this field.