Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom [Hardcover]

Robert Chazan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521831849 | ISBN-13: 978-0521831840 | Publication Date: February 2, 2004

Five twelfth- and thirteenth-century polemicists from southern France and northern Spain are the first known Jewish polemicists from western Christendom, who identified major Christian challenges, as well as appropriate responses for fellow Jews under ever-increasing religious pressure. This analysis suggests that the Jewish polemicists ultimately attempted to offer their followers a significantly contrasting portrait of Christian and Jewish society: the former as powerful but irrational and morally debased; the latter as weak, but profoundly rational and morally elevated.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A useful synthesis of recent scholarship in early Jewish-Christian relations and a provocative basis for discussion of the future of modern Jewry in officially tolerant states." Speculum

"highly readable and straightfoward" An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Herbert W. Basser, Queen's University

"Fasioning Jewish Identity is clearly written and well conceived, and it provides a cogent portrayal of the religious ideas, polemical techniques, and general social context informing these works that will be useful for both beginner and expert readers. Chazan's exploration of the conceptual disagreements underlying what have often been perceived as sterile scriptural ebates is particularly helpful, and he successfully retrieves this type of exegetical argumentation as a meaningful locus of discussion. The work is also valuable for its presentation of two little-known and previously untranslated texts, Meir ben Simon's Milhemet mitzvah and Nahmanides' Sefer ha-ge'ulah." - Eve Krakowski, Chicago, Illinois

"Chazan has written an incredibly well-organized, well-argued book. Each piece of evidence presented is laid on a solid foundation created in previous chapters, and his progression from antiquity to the middle ages is well thought out." - Melissa Bruninga-Matteau, History, UC Irvine

Book Description

This book studies in detail five twelfth- and thirteenth-century polemicists from southern France and northern Spain. These are the first known Jewish polemicists from western Christendom, who identified their perceptions of major Christian challenges, and the lines of response proposed to fellow Jews who came increasingly under religious pressure. The analysis suggests that these Jewish polemicists ultimately attempted to offer their followers a starkly contrasting portrait of Christian and Jewish society, the former powerful but irrational and morally debased, the latter weak but profoundly rational and morally elevated.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 396 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521831849
• ISBN-13: 978-0521831840
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,425,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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