Political Ritual and Practice in Capetian France
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Book Series
Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, vol. 42
The Hermeneutical Jew
Essays on Inter-Religious Encounters in Honour of Jeremy Cohen
Ram Ben-Shalom, Yosi Yisraeli (eds)
- Pages: approx. 385 p.
- Size:156 x 234 mm
- Illustrations:5 col.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2025
- € 110,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61209-6
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Apr/25)
- € 110,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-61210-2
- E-book
- Forthcoming
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This collection of new studies by leading medievalists serves as a fitting tribute to Jeremy Cohen's groundbreaking scholarship, offering readers an illuminating journey through medieval and early modern European religious identity and the interconnected histories of Judaism and Christianity.
Subject(s)
BIO
Ram Ben-Shalom is a Professor of Jewish History and Head of the Department of History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the editor of the Hispania Judaica Bulletin. Ben-Shalom has published widely on medieval European Jewish history and is a specialist in the Jewish–Christian discourse of the Middle Ages.
Yosi Yisraeli is a lecturer at the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University. He is an historian of Jewish and Christian thought in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, specializing in Jewish-Christian encounters, religious conversions, converso theology and Christian Hebraism.
Summary
The interconnected histories of Judaism and Christianity are explored in this compelling volume honouring the influential work of Jeremy Cohen. Cohen’s pioneering studies have reshaped our understanding of these religious traditions, emphasizing the crucial role of cross-religious engagements in shaping their self-perceptions and identities.
Comprising fifteen chapters, the book is organized into four thematic sections that delve into various facets of medieval interfaith dynamics. The first section, Literary Mirrors and Inter-Religious Representations, delves into internalizations, (mis)representations, and appropriations of competing religious traditions. The second section, Physical and Figurative Encounters: Inter-Religious Gazes, addresses the roles played by visible and physical markers in setting interreligious boundaries and exchanges. The third section, Agents of Anti-Jewish Discourse: Between Hermeneutical and Real Jews, focuses on Christian thinkers of the late Middle Ages who propagated anti-Jewish measures or prejudices across different genres and causes. The final section, The Transformability of the Jews and the Hermeneutics of Inter-Religious Conversion, examines the cultural and intellectual impact of different efforts to convert Jews and Jewishness.
This collection of new studies by leading medievalists serves as a fitting tribute to Jeremy Cohen’s groundbreaking contributions and offers readers an insightful perspective on the complex world of medieval and early modern religious identity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction. A Game of Mirrors: Jeremy Cohen and the Literary Matrix of the Jewish-Christian Encounter — YOSI YISRAELI and RAM BEN-SHALOM
Chapter 1. Unetaneh tokef: From John of Patmos to Amnon of Mainz — ISRAEL JACOB YUVAL
Chapter 2. Narrative as Historical Interpretation: Rabbi Eliyahu Capsali’s ‘Cycle of Ashkenaz Tales’ — ELI YASSIF
Chapter 3. The Hermeneutic Gentile: The Evolution of the Anti-Jewish Rhetoric in the Mesirat Haman Monologue — RONI COHEN
Chapter 4. The Hermeneutics of Power: Competing Narratives of Imperial Origins — URI Z. SHACHAR
Chapter 5. From the Hermeneutical Jew to the Intersectional Jewess: Gender, Identity, and Scopic Ambivalence in Medieval Europe — AVITAL DAVIDOVICH-ESHED
Chapter 6. Hermeneutical Objects in Late Antique Jerusalem — ORA LIMOR
Chapter 7. Signing with the Cross and Other Ritualized Gestures in Medieval Jewish-Christian Encounters — IRVEN M. RESNICK
Chapter 8. Facing the Crucifix: Herman of Cologne — A ‘Hermeneutical Jew’ Reacting to Christian Symbolism? — EPHRAIM SHOHAM-STEINER
Chapter 9. Animals at War in the Kennicott Bible — KATRIN KOGMAN-APPEL
Chapter 10. How Hermeneutical are the Jews in Gratian’s Decretum? — ANNA SAPIR ABULAFIA
Chapter 11. Evelyn Faye Wilson, John of Garland, and the ‘Invisible’ Jews — WILLIAM CHESTER JORDAN
Chapter 12. Manuforte of Trani: An Assessment — PIERO CAPELLI
Chapter 13. Carnal Israel? The Medieval Conceit of Jews as Organs in the Social Body — RYAN SZPIECH
Chapter 14. Mass Conversion and Genealogical Mentalities Revisited: Jews and Muslims in North Africa and Iberia — DAVID NIRENBERG
Chapter 15. ‘They shall return at evening’: A pro-Converso Response against the Inconvertibility of the Jews (between the Katechontic and the Messianic) — CLAUDE B. STUCZYNSKI
Index
