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Journal articles on the topic 'Jewish converts from Christianity'
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1
Yisraeli, Yosi. "From Christian Polemic to a Jewish-Converso Dialogue." Medieval Encounters 24, no. 1-3 (May 29, 2018): 160–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700674-12340020.
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Abstract This article presents a new reading of the polemical strategies and arguments embodied in the “anti-Jewish” tractate by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pablo de Santa María (c.1352–1435), the Scrutinium scripturarum (c.1432). It suggests the Scrutinium reflected a unique polemical dynamic that emerged between converts and Jews following the mass conversions of 1391 and the early fifteenth century, regarding the spiritual assimilation of converts to their new faith. Grappling with the new challenges faced by converts, the Scrutinium articulated a Christian approach toward rabbinic traditions and Jewish skepticism that differed dramatically from the scholastic–polemical traditions that were employed at the disputation of Tortosa. Its introduction of rabbinic esotericism provided its Latin-reading audience new historical and theological grounds for the integration of rabbinic authority within Christian scholarship and history. In doing so, it embodied what could be considered a distinct “converso voice,” which challenged the customary religious boundaries between Judaism and Christianity.
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Utterback, Kristine T. "“Conversi” Revert: Voluntary and Forced Return to Judaism in the Early Fourteenth Century." Church History 64, no. 1 (March 1995): 16–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3168654.
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Forced to choose between conversion and death, many medieval Jews chose to be baptized as Christians. While not all Jews in Western Europe faced such stark choices, during the fourteenth century pressure increased on the Jewish minority to join the Christian majority. Economic, social, and political barriers to Jews often made conversion a necessity or at least an advantage, exerting a degree of coercion even without brute force. Once baptized these new Christians, called conversi, were required to abandon their Jewish practices entirely. But what kind of life actually awaited these converts? In the abstract, the converts had clear options: they could either remain Christians or return to judaism. Reality would surely reveal a range of possibilities, however, as these conversi tried to live out their conversion or to reject it without running afoul of the authorities. While the dominant Christian culture undoubtedly exerted pressure to convert, Jews did not necessarily sit idly by while their people approached the baptismal font. Some conversi felt contrary pressure to take up Judaism again. In the most extreme cases, conversi who reverted to Judaism faced death as well. This paper examines forces exerted on Jewish converts to Christianity to return to Judaism, using examples from France and northern Spain in the first half of the fourteenth century.
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Teter, Magda. "The Legend of Ger Ẓedek of Wilno as Polemic and Reassurance." AJS Review 29, no. 2 (November 2005): 237–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009405000127.
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Some time in the second half of the eighteenth century, there emerged a Jewish legend that glorified a conversion to Judaism and a martyr's death of a Polish noble from a very prominent Polish aristocratic family, sometimes referred to as Walentyn Potocki, or Graf Potocki—the legend of ger ẓedek, a righteous convert, of Wilno. The story was enthusiastically embraced by Eastern European Jews, and it subsequently became a subject of numerous novels and novellas. Even today its appeal continues. It is currently mentioned on a number of Jewish web sites as “a true story of a Polish Hrabia (count) . . . who descended from a long line of noble Christian rulers and who sacrificed wealth and power to convert from Christianity to Judaism,” and it serves as a basis for school plays in some Ḥaredi schools for girls. Although converts to Judaism were not unheard of in the premodern era, few stories of this kind emerged. Rabbinic authorities had an ambiguous attitude toward non-Jewish conversions, and few encouraged proselytizing or glorified non-Jewish converts. The legend of ger ẓedek of Wilno, though said to be a true story, appears to be a carefully crafted tale of conversion, a polemical and apologetic response to a number of challenges that the Polish Jewish community faced from the mid-eighteenth century.
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Glazer-Eytan, Yonatan. "Conversos, Moriscos, and the Eucharist in Early Modern Spain: Some Reflections on Jewish Exceptionalism." Jewish History 35, no. 3-4 (December 2021): 265–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10835-021-09424-0.
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AbstractSacrilegious attitudes toward the Eucharistic host are one of the most commonplace accusations leveled against Jews in premodern Europe. Usually treated in Jewish historiography as an expression of anti-Judaism or antisemitism, they are considered a hallmark of Jewish powerlessness and persecution. In medieval and early modern Spain, however, Jews and conversos (Jewish converts to Christianity and their descendants) were not the only proclaimed enemies of the Eucharist. Reports about avoidance, rejection, criticism, and even ridicule and profanation of the consecrated host were similarly leveled against Muslims and moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity). This essay seeks to assess the parallels and connections between the two groups through a comparative examination of accusations of sacrilegious behavior towards the host. The first part of the essay analyzes religious art, legal compendia, and inquisitorial trials records from the tribunals of Toledo and Cuenca in order to show some evident homologies between the two groups. The second part of the essay focuses on the analysis of the works of Jaime Bleda and Pedro Aznar y Cardona, two apologists of the expulsion of the moriscos, and draws direct connections between Jewish and morisco sacrilege. By exploring the similarities and differences between accusations against conversos and moriscos, this essay aims to offer a broader reflection on Jewish exceptionalism.
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Hsia, R. Po-chia. "Elisheva Carlebach. Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500–1750. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. xii, 324 pp." AJS Review 29, no. 2 (November 2005): 388–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009405350173.
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Unlike the Sephardim, who accepted the concept of taqiyya and the practice of marranism to cope with forced conversions under Islam, the Ashkenazim, especially the Jewish communities of Germanophone Central Europe, developed an uncompromising rejection of Christian baptism. Instead of marranism and deception under Islam, the Ashkenazim, in the persecutions of the Crusades and after, developed a strong sense of martyrdom and detested baptism, whether forced or voluntary, as ritual and spiritual defilement and pollution. The small number of Jewish converts to Christianity were not so much sinners but apostates (meshummadim or the vertilgten). Given this Ashkenazi tradition, it is not surprising that converts were marginalized in Jewish historiography and scholarship. Nevertheless, as Carlebach argues persuasively in this book, they played a significant role in Jewish–Christian relations in early modern Germany; and given the fact that conversions rose rapidly in the late eighteenth century, it is all the more important to understand the prehistory of Jewish conversion and integration in Germany after Emancipation.
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Byrne, Brendan. "Jerusalems Above and Below: A Critique of J. L. Martyn's Interpretation of the Hagar–Sarah Allegory in Gal 4.21–5.1." New Testament Studies 60, no. 2 (March 14, 2014): 215–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0028688513000362.
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In several studies of Galatians, J. Louis Martyn has argued that in the allegory of Hagar and Sarah (4.1–5.1), the ‘two covenants’ of 4.24b, traditionally identified with Judaism and Christianity respectively, refer, on the one hand, to a Christian Jewish Law-observant Gentile mission, Teachers from whom are disturbing Paul's Galatian converts, and to the Law-free Gentile mission promulgated by Paul, on the other. In the light, particularly, of Paul's overall usage of ‘covenant’, Martyn's interpretation is not sustainable – though this need not imply a return to an anti-Jewish interpretation of the text.
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Power, Patricia A. "Blurring the Boundaries: American Messianic Jews and Gentiles." Nova Religio 15, no. 1 (August 1, 2011): 69–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2011.15.1.69.
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Messianic Judaism is usually equated with Jews for Jesus, an overtly missionizing form of ethnically Jewish Evangelical Christianity that was born in the American counter-culture revolution of the 1970s. The ensuing and evolving hybrid blend of Judaism and Christianity that it birthed has evoked strong objections from both the American Jewish and mainline Christian communities. What begs an explanation, though, is how a Gentile Protestant missionary project to convert the Jews has become an ethnically Jewish movement to create community, continuity, and perhaps a new form of Judaism. This paper explores the way in which Messianic Jews have progressively exploited the space between two historically competitive socio-religious cultures in order to create an identity of their own in the American religious landscape. It also introduces Messianic Israelites, non-Jewish but sympathetic believers who are struggling with the implications of an ethnically divided church where Jews are the categorically privileged members.
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Katz, David S. "The Abendana Brothers and the Christian Hebraists of Seventeenth-Century England." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 40, no. 1 (January 1989): 28–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046900035417.
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One of the most striking features of the first decades of open Jewish resettlement in England is the speed with which Jews managed to integrate themselves into so many different spheres of English life. From the first appointment of a Jew as a broker on the Exchange in 1657 to the first Jewish knighthood in 1700, the story is one of a dramatic rise in the acquisition of rights, privileges and special consideration. So, too, had Jews long been a part of English intellectual and academic life, but before Cromwell's tacit permission of Jewish residence in 1656 only Jewish converts to Christianity dared to make their appearance at English universities. This pattern was broken with the Abendana brothers, Jacob (d. 1685) and Isaac (d. 1699), Hebrew scholars and bibliophiles who came to London from Holland after the Restoration. Jacob Abendana, in the last four years of his life, was rabbi of the Sephardic community in London; Isaac, from at least 1663, taught Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge. Both men were very much in demand by English scholars, who turned to them to solve Hebraic problems of various kinds and to procure Hebrew books for themselves and for university libraries. Both brothers worked on the first translations of the Mishnah into European languages and thus helped make available to Christian scholars this central core of the Talmud, the Jewish ‘oral’ law. Finally, it was Isaac Abendana who invented the Oxford diary and thereby made a permanent mark on the social habits of the university in which he laboured.
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Rolnick-Wihtol, DeForest Ariyel. "Caliban Yisrael: Constructing Caliban as the Jewish Other in Shakespeare’s The Tempest." Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal 16, no. 1 (2020): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.5399/uo/ourj/16.1.2.
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This paper seeks to introduce new data into the discussion of William Shakespeare’s portrayal of Jewish people through intertextual and close reading of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice, sections from the Geneva Bible, and primary documents discussing Anglo-Jewish life in the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s relationship to and purported views of Jewish people have been scrutinized for centuries. However, almost all conclusions put forth by scholars about Shakespeare’s ties to Elizabethan Jewish communities and anti-Semitism have been drawn from one work, The Merchant of Venice. Merchant contains Shakespeare’s only explicitly Jewish characters, Shylock and his daughter, Jessica, although she happily converts to Christianity. In this paper, I propose that Shakespeare has an implicitly Jewish character lurking in The Tempest: Caliban, the play’s main antagonist, a native to the island on which the play is set, and Prospero and Miranda’s slave. I will support the interpretation of Caliban as a Jewish-coded figure through cross-reading The Tempest with The Merchant of Venice, sections of the Geneva Bible, and non-fiction testimonials from English residents during and before the Elizabethan era. Using both these plays alongside other scholarly and historical texts, I will bring cultural and historical context to these portrayals in order to explore a deeper understanding of the complicated and nuanced depictions of Jewish people in Shakespeare’s work.
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Drews, Wolfram. "Contesting Religious Truth." Frühmittelalterliche Studien 57, no. 1 (October 1, 2023): 69–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/fmst-2023-0004.
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Abstract Christian theologians were involved in anti-Jewish arguments almost since the ‘parting of the ways’ of the two religions. In late antiquity and the early middle ages, anti-Jewish arguments were based almost exclusively on Biblical quotations, which were adduced as evidence meant to substantiate the Christian interpretation of scripture. It was only in the scholastic period that new forms of evidence were included in the traditional argument Adversus Iudaeos, which were derived from the recourse to reason. The Jewish figures presented by Christian authors within their writings are constructed entirely according to Christian assumptions and prejudices; only rarely do we get any real Jewish voices representing points of view close to any kind of Jewish reality. This only changed when growing numbers of Jews converted to Christianity in the high middle ages; Jewish converts drew the attention of Christian authorities to rabbinic literature. At first, the Talmud was targeted as a sinister text allegedly undermining theological truth, but later it was appropriated by Christian propagandists, who tried to base their anti-Jewish arguments on the post-biblical canon of Rabbinic Judaism. The article analyses the gradual expansion of anti-Jewish evidence; in particular, it highlights turning points when anti-Jewish strategies tried to include new methods and media to substantiate the credibility of Christian claims to monopolise religious truth. The Jewish side reacted against such attempts by reinterpreting and rewriting the history of anti-Christian Jewish arguments, notably on the occasion of the Paris Talmud trial. The redirection of Christian-Jewish arguments in the high middle ages provides ample evidence for the study of contesting truths, the substantiation and subversion of validity claims, as well as the rewriting of history in order to further political aims.
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Lasker, Daniel J. "Controversy and Collegiality: A Look at Provence." Medieval Encounters 22, no. 1-3 (May 23, 2016): 13–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700674-12342214.
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Gad Freudenthal and I disagree as to the relationship between Jewish anti-Christian polemics and philosophy in the cultural transfer of Andalusian rationalism to Provence. Freudenthal believes that the Jewish need to confront Christianity was one of the factors that led Provençal Jewry to adopt philosophical reasoning that theretofore had been foreign to them. I have argued that Iberian Jewish immigrants to Provence sought out Christian colleagues because of the latter’s interest in philosophy; in order to make sure the boundaries between the religions were maintained, these Jewish intellectuals were motivated to polemicize against Christianity. A central example of our disagreement is the case of Jacob ben Reuben, author of Wars of the Lord (1170), who describes his encounters with a Christian sage who tried to convert him. Freudenthal believes that Jacob learned philosophy in order to find answers to the Christian; but I contend that from Jacob’s description, it is obvious that he had first gone to the Christian’s house to learn philosophy before he was urged by his teacher to convert. Unlike Freudenthal who believes polemics led to philosophy, I argue that philosophy led to polemics.
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HEISER, MICHAEL S. "Co-regency in Ancient Israel’s Divine Council as the Conceptual Backdrop to Ancient Jewish Binitarian Monotheism." Bulletin for Biblical Research 26, no. 2 (January 1, 2016): 195–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/26371649.
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Abstract Scholars have long wondered what theological and hermeneutical trajectories allowed committed monotheistic Jews to embrace Christianity’s high Christology. How exactly could devoted followers of Yhwh convert to Christianity and still consider themselves innocent of the charge of worshiping another deity? Alan Segal’s seminal work on the “two powers in heaven” doctrine of ancient Judaism demonstrated that Judaism allowed a second deity figure identified with, but distinct from, Yhwh prior to the rise of Christianity. But Segal never succeeded in articulating the roots of this theology in the Hebrew Bible. This essay seeks to bridge this gap by proposing a Godhead framework put forth by the biblical writers in adaptation of the earlier Canaanite (Ugaritic) divine council involving a co-regency of El and Baʿal. The essay suggests that Judaism’s two powers theology had its roots in an ancient Israelite co-regency notion whereby Yhwh and a second, visible Yhwh figure occupied both roles of the co-regency in the biblical writers’ conception of the divine council.
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Hamed-Troyansky, Vladimir. "Becoming Armenian: Religious Conversions in the Late Imperial South Caucasus." Comparative Studies in Society and History 63, no. 1 (January 2021): 242–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417520000432.
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AbstractIn the nineteenth-century South Caucasus, hundreds of local farmers and nomads petitioned Russian authorities to allow them to become Christians. Most of them were Muslims and specifically requested to join the Armenian Apostolic Church. This article explores religious conversions to Armenian Christianity on Russia's mountainous southern border with the Ottoman Empire and Iran. It demonstrates that tsarist reforms, chiefly the peasant reform and the sedentarization of nomads, accelerated labor migration within the region, bringing many Muslims, Yazidis, and Assyrians into an Armenian environment. Local anxieties over Russian colonialism further encouraged conversions. I argue that by converting to Armenian Christianity many rural South Caucasians benefited from a change in their legal status, which came with the right to move residence, access to agricultural land, and other freedoms. Russia's Jewish communities, on the other hand, saw conversion to Armenian Christianity as a legal means to circumvent discrimination and obtain the right to live outside of the Pale of Settlement. By drawing on converts’ petitions and officials’ decisions, this article illustrates that the Russian government emerged as an ultimate arbiter of religious conversions, evaluating the sincerity of petitioners’ faith and how Armenian they had become, while preserving the empire's religious and social hierarchies.
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Levantovskaya, Margarita. "The Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora in Translation: Liudmila Ulitskaia's Daniel Stein, Translator." Slavic Review 71, no. 1 (2012): 91–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.71.1.0091.
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Liudmila Ulitskaia's 2006 novel, Daniel' Shtain, pervodchik (Daniel Stein, Translator), explores the experience of the Russian-speaking diaspora in the aftermath of World War II through a focus on Jewish immigrants in Israel who convert to Christianity. The novel's treatment of the divisive topic of Jewish to Christian conversion is enabled by the author's reliance on the theoretical and allegorical values of translation. Evoking advancements in twentieth-century translation studies through its broad treatment of translation and critique of the investment in the notion of fidelity to the original, be it language or identity, the novel advocates for the acceptance of the transformations and the resulting hybridity of the Jewish diasporic self. Daniel Stein, Translator specifically highlights the influence of the Soviet nationalities policies and the Nazi occupation of eastern Europe on the identity metamorphoses of Soviet Jews. By promoting the legitimacy of the expressions of Jewish identity by immigrants from the USSR through her novel, Ulitskaia proposes an expanded and anti-essentialist view of Jewish identity that would include individuals traditionally viewed as apostates.
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NUMARK, MITCH. "Hebrew School in Nineteenth-Century Bombay: Protestant Missionaries, Cochin Jews, and the Hebraization of India's Bene Israel Community." Modern Asian Studies 46, no. 6 (March 12, 2012): 1764–808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x12000121.
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AbstractThis paper is a study of cultural interaction and diffusion in colonial Bombay. Focusing on Hebrew language instruction, it examines the encounter between India's little-known Bene Israel Jewish community and Protestant missionaries. Whilst eighteenth and nineteenth-century Cochin Jews were responsible for teaching the Bene Israel Jewish liturgy and forms of worship, the Bene Israel acquired Hebrew and Biblical knowledge primarily from nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Bene Israel community was a Konkan jati with limited knowledge of Judaism. However, by the end of the century the community had become an Indian-Jewish community roughly analogous to other Jewish communities. This paper explores how this transformation occurred, detailing the content, motivation, and means by which British and American missionaries and, to a lesser extent, Cochin Jews instructed the Bene Israel in Jewish knowledge. Through a critical examination of neglected English and Marathi sources, it reconstructs the Bene Israel perspective in these encounters and their attitude towards the Christian missionaries who laboured amongst them. It demonstrates that the Bene Israel were active participants and selective consumers in their interaction with the missionaries, taking what they wanted most from the encounter: knowledge of the Old Testament and the Hebrew language. Ultimately, the instruction the Bene Israel received from Protestant missionaries did not convert them to Christianity but strengthened and transformed their Judaism.
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Pomeroy, Hillary. "Muslim Lands, Christian Heroes, Jewish Voices." European Judaism 33, no. 1 (March 1, 2000): 70–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ej.2000.330111.
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The Spanish Jews who fled to North Africa from the 1391 pogroms were joined a century later, in 1492, by a larger wave of exiles, the thousands of Jews who had chosen to leave Spain rather than convert to Christianity. These fellow Jews, the megorashim or expelled Jews, had been forbidden to take 'gold and silver or minted coins' out of Spain (Edwards 1994: 52). They did, however, take with them invisible assets: their Spanish language and culture. This Iberian presence in Morocco was further reinforced by the arrival of a third group of Spanish-speaking Jews fleeing the forced conversions imposed by Portugal in 1497.
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Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna. "Hassliebe. Żydowska samonienawiść w ujęciu Sandera L. Gilmana (część pierwsza: od Hermana z Moguncji do Johannesa Pfefferkorna)." Studia Litteraria et Historica, no. 2 (June 30, 2014): 27–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.11649/slh.2013.003.
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Hassliebe. Jewish self-hatred as seen by Sander L. Gilman (part one: from Hermann of Mainz to Johannes Pfefferkorn)The present paper constitutes the first part of the analysis of Sander L. Gilman’s famous book Jewish Self-Hatred, and the pioneering interpretation of the concept of stereotype. According to Gilman, a stereotype emerges as a result of an active collaboration of the person who stereotypises and the outsider. The latter opposes the image imposed by the stereotype, and thus splits the stereotype into a positive and a negative part. By identifying himself with the positive part, the outsider delegates the purity of classification not only to the subgroup he does not feel any attachment to, but also involuntarily legitimises the stereotype, because without his authorisation, the stereotype would merely remain a racist insult. The article is based on the narrations of Jewish converts to Christianity from the Middle Ages to the 15th century. Hassliebe. Żydowska samonienawiść w ujęciu Sandera L. Gilmana (część pierwsza: od Hermana z Moguncji do Johannesa Pfefferkorna)Tekst jest pierwszą częścią omówienia głośnej książki Sandera L. Gilmana, Jewish Self-Hatred i przedstawionej w niej pionierskiej koncepcji stereotypu, powstającego w ramach aktywnego współdziałania stereotypizującego i outsidera. Ten ostatni, walcząc z narzuconym mu niesprawiedliwym wizerunkiem, dokonuje rozszczepienia stereotypu na pozytywny i negatywny, identyfikując się z tym pierwszym. W ten sposób nie tylko deleguje „nieczystość klasyfikacyjną” na podgrupę, z którą nie czuje związku, ale przede wszystkim niezauważalnie sam legitymizuje stereotyp, który bez jego autoryzacji miałby rangę rasistowskiego oszczerstwa. Materiał źródłowy artykułu stanowią narracje żydowskich konwertytów na chrześcijaństwo od średniowiecza po wiek XV.
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Hood, John Y. B. "Did Augustine Abandon His Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Aduersus Iudaeos?" Augustinian Studies 50, no. 2 (2019): 171–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/augstudies20195752.
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Augustine’s doctrine of Jewish witness maintains that, although Christianity has superseded Judaism as the one true religion, it is God’s will that the Jews continue to exist because they preserve and authenticate the Old Testament, divinely-inspired texts which foretold the coming of Jesus. Thus, Christian rulers are obligated to protect the religious liberties of the Jewish people, and the church should focus its missionary efforts on pagans rather than Jews. Current scholarly consensus holds that Augustine adhered consistently to this doctrine from its first iteration in Contra Faustum in 398 until his death in 430. However, this essay argues that, when Augustine spoke his last words on the subject in the Tractatus Aduersus Iudaeos (427–430), the doctrine was no longer his primary guide in thinking about how Christians should interact with Jews. In marked contrast to his earlier views, here, Augustine passionately urges Jews to accept Christ and encourages his congregation to try to convert them. This reading of the Tractatus Aduersus Iudaeos calls for a re-examination of the development of Augustine’s teaching, particularly in the context of dramatic changes in imperial policy toward Jews in the 420s.
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Regev, Eyal. "Early Christianity in Light of New Religious Movements." Numen 63, no. 5-6 (October 14, 2016): 483–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341435.
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Comparing early Christian groups with modern new religious movements (nrms) and cults enables us to identify and analyze indicative social and religious attributes that defined the self-identity of the early Christians (as reflected in the letters of Paul, Acts, and the Gospel of John), made them stand out as different, and, ultimately, led to their rejection by outside society.The devotion to Jesus as Christ and the inclusion of Gentiles among these early Christian groups were novel features that, by definition, created a new religious movement rejected by both Jews and Romans. The intense recruitment of converts by early Christians, also a characteristic ofnrms, was seen as a direct threat by their contemporaries. Early Christian groups lacked social separation from mainstream society, strong demands on their members along with sanctions against deviant ones, and systematic organization — all characteristics which are particular to certain cults, such as Scientology in its early years and the Sōka Gakkai. Taken together, these three social features demonstrate that early Christianity was not a segregated sect but, rather, a cult that aimed to penetrate mainstream society, gain legitimacy, and recruit converts.
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Caputo, Nina. "The Barcelona Disputation: Texts and Contexts." Perichoresis 18, no. 4 (August 1, 2020): 21–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/perc-2020-0020.
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AbstractScholars of Jewish history have paid consistent and devoted attention to the Barcelona Disputation of 1263. Records of this event preserve contemporary Jewish and Christian responses to the proceedings, which pitted Nahmanides, the most important exegete and teacher of the region, against a convert from Judaism to Christianity, took place in the royal court before an illustrious audience. This essay traces trends in scholarly treatments of the Barcelona Disputation from the early days of the Wissenschaft des Judentums to the present. By examining challenges of veracity posed by the documentary sources as well as foundational assumptions about what the medieval authors intended to achieve with their accounts, this article provides broad overview of the historiography that has developed around the Barcelona Disputation.
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Jagodzińska, Agnieszka. "“For Zion's Sake I Will Not Rest”: The London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews and its Nineteenth-Century Missionary Periodicals." Church History 82, no. 2 (May 20, 2013): 381–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s000964071300005x.
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Since the Evangelical Revival triggered a new wave of British millenarian expectations and aroused religiously motivated interest in Jews, various religious bodies and individuals envisioned the necessity of Jews' conversion, stimulating countless and restless efforts to evangelize “God's chosen people.” These efforts, organized within the framework of the vast British missionary enterprise, soon became “nothing short of a national project,” to cite Michael Ragussis. This project, dubbed by its critics as “the English madness,” expressed itself in activity of various societies, and missions, in a wide flow of literature and in constantly recurring public debates. The London Society for Promoting Christianity among Jews (abbreviated from here to the London Society or the Society), was probably its most important outcome. Established as a separate missionary enterprise in 1809, it was the oldest and the largest society in field of nineteenth-century British “Jewish missions.” It sent missionaries not only to the Jewish communities in British colonial spaces, but also far beyond. The efforts of the Society to convert Jews are well reflected in its numerous missionary periodicals whose function, form, and language I wish to discuss here.
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Szpiech, Ryan. "Scrutinizing History: Polemic and Exegesis in Pablo de Santa María’s Siete edades del mundo." Medieval Encounters 16, no. 1 (2010): 96–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/138078510x12535199002712.
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AbstractThis essay considers the growth of historiographical writing in fifteenth-century Iberia within the context of mass conversions of Jews to Christianity. It takes the writing of the convert Pablo de Santa María (ca. 1351-1435) as a test case for considering the emergence of historiographical writing directly informed by the events of 1391, in which many thousands of Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity. By reading Pablo’s poem Siete edades del mundo (Seven Ages of the World) in light of his biblical exegesis and anti-Jewish polemic, it is possible to show how issues relevant to Pablo’s conversion, including his exegetical polemic with Judaism, directly affect his historiographical writing and shape his use of standard tropes of fifteenth-century Castilian historiography. This suggests that, while there may be no uniquely “converso voice” in history writing, some fifteenth-century historiography is clearly informed by issues of particular relevance to conversos. At the same time, it implies that some fifteenth-century Christian historiography, like that of Sephardic Jews after the expulsion of 1492, grew from earlier historiographical and polemical traditions that transcend any single catalyzing event such as the trauma of 1391.
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Bach, Alice. "Trading in Souls." Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 1, no. 1 (April 28, 2005): 105–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/post.v1i1.105.
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In the years since 9/11, a group of prominent Evangelical Christian ministers has sought to capture the Islamic faithful and convert them to Christianity. Incendiary comments about Islam from religious leaders like Franklyn Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Vines have drawn rebukes from Muslims and Christian groups alike, but many in the grass roots of Evangelical Christianity have absorbed their leaders’ antipathy for Islam. In Evangelical churches and seminaries across country, lectures, and books criticizing Islam and promoting strategies for Muslim conversions are gaining currency. Many of these groups view the US military and its wars in the Muslim world as the perfect vehicles for missionary work in the difficult ‘10/40 Window’, Evangelical speak for the portion of the Middle East that is oil-rich and waiting for conversion to Christianity. The same Evangelical political groups have dedicated themselves to financial support of ultra-orthodox Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories while advocating US government support of imperialist Israel. Chosen–ness is being crafted as a political term, smacking of imperialism, while the chosen people are the ones on our side.
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Siluk, Avraham (Avi). "From Dusk till Dawn: The Transformation and Conversion of the Pietist Missionary Treatise Or le-‘et ‘erev ( The Light at Evening Time ) and Its Dutch Translator." Jewish Quarterly Review 114, no. 1 (January 2024): 75–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2024.a921349.
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Abstract: Or le-‘et ‘erev was the most popular missionary pamphlet printed by the Pietist Institutum Judaicum et Muhammedicum in Halle (Saale). This Yiddish booklet garnered much attention among Jews and Christians alike, and it was translated into several languages, including Dutch. One Dutch translation was penned by a Jewish convert who later reverted to Judaism and faced various accusations relating to his translation. This article focuses on that Dutch translation and the largely unknown personality of its author. The translation and its accompanying paratexts are compared with another eighteenth-century Dutch translation of the same pamphlet, thus shedding light on the translation techniques used, as well as the nature of the work and its intended audience. The translator’s multiple identities appear in a diverse corpus of documents under several aliases. In his largely unknown Hebrew apologia, Or le-‘et boker , which demonstrates a profound knowledge of Judaism as well as remarkable literary skills, he rewrote the story of his reconversion as a tale of repentance and redemption. Despite the idiosyncrasy of this fascinating life story, which transitions between Christianity and Judaism, the translator should be viewed as belonging to a larger group of less-known eighteenth-century Jewish authors and reformers. The members of this group sought to improve piety and religious education among their coreligionists and shared eighteenth-century Christian pietist notions of religiosity.
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Sharma, Bal Krishna. "Theses from OCMS: Funerary Rites in Nepal: Cremation, Burial and Christian Identity." Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 35, no. 3 (July 2018): 192–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265378818808944.
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This study explores and analyses funerary rite struggles in a nation where Christianity is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and many families have Christian and Hindu, Buddhist and Traditionalist ( kiranti) members, who go through traumatic experiences at the death of their family members. The context of mixed affiliation raises questions of social, psychological and religious identity for Christian converts, which are particularly acute after a death in their family. Using empirical research, this thesis focuses on the question of adaptation and identity in relation to church life, within the familial and social sphere of individual Christians and within the wider society in which they live, particularly with reference to death and disposal. This research has used an applied theology approach to explore and analyse the findings in order to address the issue of funerary rites with which the Nepalese church is struggling. For the need of adaptation, this study seeks to understand the funerary rites of the host culture alongside Jewish-Christian characteristics of adaptation, especially in terms of the Nepalese Evangelical Christian context. It also poses the challenge of finding an identity in a wider cultural and societal milieu. The case studies and interviews have portrayed tripartite relationships and tensions between an individual, family and church or community at the death in a ‘split’ family where a Christian convert’s loyalty to the deceased and the family is tested. Participation and non-participation in the last rites create problems for both the church and the family, and some solution needs to be found. The study has discovered that adaptation of the technique of the funerary rites, rather than of their content, could ease this tension in a ‘split’ family, and enhance a family and community’s reconciliation and solidarity. The mode of disposal, whether burial or cremation, could be used and a theology of cremation be developed in order to provide a theological framework.
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Marten, Michael. "Imperialism and Evangelisation: Scottish Missionary Methods in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Palestine." Holy Land Studies 5, no. 2 (November 2006): 155–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/hls.2007.0006.
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The article examines Scottish missionary methods in Palestine from the 1880s until World War One. Missionary activity in this context was aimed primarily at the conversion of Jews to (Protestant) Christianity. The methods employed consisted primarily of direct confrontation, provision of education, and the off ering of medical facilities. The article looks at how and why these approaches were taken and the general ineff ectiveness of each method in producing converts. The article also outlines the reaction of local populations and concludes by describing some of the consequences of the Scots' missionary efforts.
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Tieman, Marco, and Faridah Hj Hassan. "Convergence of food systems: Kosher, Christian and Halal." British Food Journal 117, no. 9 (September 7, 2015): 2313–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/bfj-02-2015-0058.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate if religious food laws can provide answers to current issues with the food systems. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a discussion of the dietary and food system principles from a Judaism, Christianity and Islamic perspective for the design of a more sustainable and healthy food system. Findings – The commercialisation of the natural resources, industrial food production approach and consumerism is endangering the food security, health and environment. Current industry practices are not sustainable and do not comply with Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures. Kosher, Christian and halal food laws share common principles in prohibition of certain animals (like pig), prohibition of blood, role of fasting and animal welfare. As a change in the diet is the solution, there is a key role for the food industry to comply and for religious leaders to radically reduce meat consumption and food waste of its followers. Research limitations/implications – This viewpoint paper shows that religious food laws provide answers to current problems with the industrialised food production approach and consumerism. Practical implications – New food industry directives should convert meat-based to plant-based ingredients and additives; replace porcine by bovine sources; and emphasise on animal welfare to better serve the Jewish, Christian and Muslim consumer. Religious logos (kosher and halal) should incorporate nutrient profiling through a traffic light system to promote healthy food choice. Originality/value – Religious food laws are important for a big part of the world population (Jews, Christians and Muslims), which share many common principles. This study contributes to a better understanding of the commonalities and differences in these religious food laws.
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Chernina, L. V. "ПроблемырелигиозногообращениявюридическомтворчествеАльфонсоХ." Istoricheskii vestnik, no. 22(2017) part: 22/2017 (September 27, 2019): 56–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.35549/hr.2019.2017.36633.
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Статья посвящена разновидностям религиозного обращения в Кастилии в 13м веке, главным образом в том виде, в каком они появляются в легальных источниках эры Альфонсина. Заметное еврейское меньшинство существовало в средневековых христианских штатах Пиренейского полуострова наряду с более крупным мусульманским. Церковь и какимто образом государство поощряло членов этих групп принять христианство. Это было главной целью различных мер, некоторые из которых нашли свое отражение в Fuero Real , Especulo и Siete Partidas : защита собственности новообращенных, регулирование брачных отношений в связи с изменением веры, установление наказаний для тех, кто мешает человеку перейти в христианское общество. Особое внимание уделяется отступничеству отказу от христианства для иудаизма или ислама, а также методам противодействия ему, предложенным юристами Альфонсо. Широко распространено мнение, что законы, которые регулировали религиозное обращение в светской правовой теории 13го века, в основном копируют существующий канонический закон. Однако анализ показывает, что на процесс составления законов влияли как церковная традиция, так и непосредственные военные и политические интересы Кастилии.The article is dedicated to the varieties of religious conversion in Castile in the 13th century, mainly as they appear in the legal sources of Alfonsine era. A noticeable Jewish minority existed in medieval Christian states of the Iberian Peninsula alongside with a larger Muslim one. The Church and in some way the State encouraged the members of these groups to adopt Christianity. This was the main purpose of different measures some of which found their reflection in Fuero Real , Especulo and Siete Partidas : protection of the converts property, the regulation of marital relations in connection with the change of faith, establishment of punishments for those who prevent an individual from the conversion to Christian society. Special attention is paid to the apostasy a rejection of Christianity for Judaism or Islam, and to the methods to impede it, suggested by Alfonsos jurists. It is widely agreed that the laws which regulated the religious conversion in the secular legal theory of the 13th century mostly copy the existed canon law. However the analysis demonstrates that the process of composition of laws was influenced both by the ecclesiastic tradition and the immediate military and political interests of Castile.
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Polyakov, Emma O’Donnell. "Jewish-Christian Identities in Conflict: The Cases of Fr. Daniel Rufeisen and Fr. Elias Friedman." Religions 12, no. 12 (December 14, 2021): 1101. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12121101.
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The status of Jewish identity in cases of conversion to another religion is a contentious issue and was brought to the forefront of public attention with the 1962 court case of Oswald Rufeisen, a Jewish convert to Christianity known as Br. Daniel, which led to a shift in the way that the state of Israel defines Jewish identity for the purposes of citizenship. At the same time, however, another test case in conflicting interpretations of Jewish identity after conversion was playing out in Rufeisen’s own monastery, hidden to the public eye. Of the fifteen monks who lived together in the Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa, two were Jewish converts, both of whom converted during the Second World War and later immigrated to Israel. Both outspoken advocates for their own understanding of Jewish identity, Rufeisen and his fellow Carmelite Fr. Elias Friedman expressed interpretations of Jewish-Christian religious identity that are polarized and even antagonistically oppositional at times. This paper argues that the intimately related histories and opposing interpretations of Rufeisen and Friedman parallel the historical contestation between Judaism and Christianity. It investigates their overlapping and yet divergent views, which magnify questions of Jewish identity, Catholic interpretations of Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust narratives, and proselytism.
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Åklundh, Jens. "Voices of Jewish Converts to Christianity in late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England." Seventeenth Century 29, no. 1 (January 2, 2014): 45–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0268117x.2013.876369.
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Reches, Danni. "From Ben-Gurion to Venezuelan Converts." Revista da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia 49, no. 1 (September 7, 2021): 82–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.14393/rfadir-v49n1a2021-59063.
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This study analyzes the development of the unique Law of Return (LOR) of the State of Israel. The LOR is aimed at enabling the immigration of all Jews to Israel and can be viewed as an expression of Israel’s ethno-religious self-definition. The analysis includes amendments made to the LOR since its implementation in 1950 to today, and how different groups of Jewish immigrants have been affected by the law. Moreover, this paper introduces a case study that so far has not received the scholarly attention it deserves; the exodus from Venezuela and the particular case of nine Venezuelan converts to Judaism in accordance with the Conservative branch of the religion. The research uncovers that the LOR contains a core contradiction. While it should be assumed that everyone is treated equally before the law, discrepancies in the treatment of different individuals and groups of people with regard to the LOR continue taking place. The differences in treatment are due to the fact that terms such as ‘Jew’ and ‘Jewish convert’ are subjective in accordance withWeber’s theory on ethnicity and the terms have been given different meanings by Jewish religious law, the Supreme Court, and the legislative power. While recognizing that the definition of these terms form the identity of the State of Israel, which is heavily contested between Orthodox religious and secular forces since its establishment as a Jewish State – this study offers suggestions for approaches to dealing with the randomness of the LOR. These consist of two main points: clarifying who should be responsible for verifying the question of who is a Jew, and listing a set of criteria that a person should meet in order to be eligible for the LOR.
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Seidler, Meir. "Eliah Benamozegh, Franz Rosenzweig and Their Blueprint of a Jewish Theology of Christianity." Harvard Theological Review 111, no. 2 (April 2018): 242–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s001781601800007x.
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AbstractIn Jewish philosophy, be it medieval or modern, a comprehensive Jewish theological discourse about Christianity is conspicuously absent. There are, however, two prominent exceptions to this rule in modern Jewish philosophy: The Italian Sephardic Orthodox Rabbi Eliah Benamozegh (1823–1900) and the German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929). In both men's thought, Christianity plays a pivotal (and largely positive) role, so much so that their Jewish philosophies would not be the same without Christianity, which has no precedent in Jewish thought. Though Rosenzweig was not aware of his Sephardic predecessor, there are some striking parallels in the two thinker's Jewish theologies of Christianity that have far-reaching interreligious implications. These parallels concern as well the basic paradigm for a positive evaluation of Christianity—the paradigm of the fire (particularist Judaism) and its rays (universal Christianity)—as well as the central flaw both of them attribute to Christianity: a built-in disequilibrium that threatens the success of its legitimate mission. These parallels are all the more striking as two thinkers arrived at their conclusions independently and by different paths: the one (Benamozegh) took recourse to Kabbalah, the other (Rosenzweig) to proto-existentialist philosophy. A comparative study of these two protagonists’ Jewish theologies of Christianity seems thus imperative.An “interreligious epilogue” at the end of the article exposes the contemporary need for a reassessment of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity from a Jewish perspective—especially in light of the deep theological revision that characterizes the approach of the Catholic Church towards Jews and Judaism following “Nostra Aetate”—but at the same time delineates the theological limits of the current Christian-Jewish interreligious endeavor. In this light, the pioneering theology of Christianity in the works of Rosenzweig and Benamozegh might yield some relevant insights.
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Sherwood, Jessie. "Coacta voluntas est voluntas: Baptism and Return in Canon Law." Medieval Encounters 28, no. 6 (December 14, 2022): 447–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700674-12340151.
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Abstract Throughout the early Middle Ages, the border between Christianity and Judaism was comparatively permeable, and baptized Jews, particularly those baptized under duress, frequently returned openly to Judaism. While modern scholars of Jewish-Christian relations often assume that medieval canon law always forbade this, a single norm governing converts’ re-conversion, or reversion, did not begin to emerge until the mid-twelfth century with the Decretum Gratiani. The Decretum established the preeminence of the canon that barred Jewish baptizands’ reversion and acted as a catalyst for discussions about the limits of consent and coercion, baptism and conversion. These debates provided the foundation for the mandates of the early thirteenth century that did establish the legal boundary between Jew and Christian which lasted into modernity: so long as baptizands consented, even if under duress, they were Christians and could not return to Judaism.
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Fenton, Paul B. "From Forced Conversion to Marranism." European Judaism 52, no. 2 (September 1, 2019): 31–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ej.2019.520204.
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This article traces the history of the forced conversion of Jews to Islam in al-Andalus and Morocco from the Middle Ages to modern times. An account is given of the various discriminative measures and even persecution to which Jewish converts were exposed. Indeed, even though they became with time sincere and learned Muslims, just as the Marranos in Christian Spain, the sincerity of their conversion was doubted and they were constantly accused of the negative traits attributed to the Jews. The article also discusses a recently discovered defence of the New Muslims authored by an Islamic scholar of Jewish origin which throws new light on the fate of these converts.
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Kroemer, James. "Vanquish the Haughty and Spare the Subjected: A Study of Bernard of Clairvaux’s Position on Muslims and Jews." Medieval Encounters 18, no. 1 (2012): 55–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006712x634567.
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Abstract The Jews and the Muslims drew the attention of the twelfth Century Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, and his words and actions had consequences for both communities. Despite his many demeaning comments about Jews and Judaism, he defended Jews from Crusader attacks, and he believed that Jews would convert to Christianity prior to the end of the world. On the other hand, he promoted the Second Crusade for the purpose of defending Jerusalem from Muslim invasion. He had no interest in converting Muslims to Christianity, only killing them if they continued their threat on the Holy Land. A close examination of Bernard’s writings reveals that his position on Jews and Muslims was not merely a reflection of church policy, but a means to advance his personal spiritual desire of union with God.
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Scheer, Catherine. "Minority Converts in a Majority Church." International Journal of Asian Christianity 6, no. 1 (March 1, 2023): 73–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/25424246-06010005.
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Abstract Conversion to Christianity among Southeast Asian highland minorities has been recurrently interpreted as a way of joining a valorised religion that distinguishes converts from often-Buddhist ruling majorities and sometimes as a means of adopting a ‘modern’ way of life. Neither of these explanations, however, seems to appropriately describe the situation of Bunong highlanders who turned to Christianity in Cambodia’s capital in the early 1970s. Under the pro-American regime of Lon Nol (1970–75), these spirit-practising inhabitants of the margins were brought to Phnom Penh to enrol in the national army. Khmer majority preachers visited them and led them to integrate themselves into the Khmer Evangelical Church. As light is shed on the astonishing trajectories of these Bunong recruits, it becomes possible to reflect upon what ‘entering Christianity’ meant for them. They were few in number, but the particularities of their experiences highlight the importance of an unprejudiced approach to Southeast Asian highlanders’ conversions.
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Li, Ye. "From Ghosts to God: Identity Formation among the Christians as Seen in the New Crop Festival in the Areas of Jingpo Ethnicity of Yunnan Province." Rural China 16, no. 2 (October 7, 2019): 291–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22136746-01602005.
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The introduction of Christianity to the areas populated by people of Jingpo ethnicity was known locally as “replacing ghosts with God.” As a compromise with the cultural traditions of the Jingpo people, the localization of Christianity worked to mitigate the tensions between the innate identity of the Jingpo aboriginals and the new identity of the converts. Nevertheless, the process also entailed an inevitable impact of the authority of God upon the validity of various native forms of ghosts that had been part and parcel of the Jingpo people’s spiritual life, which in turn facilitated the formation of the converts’ new identity as Christians, as seen in their participation in the New Crop Festival in the region of Jingpo ethnicity.
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Magid, Shaul. "Loving Judaism through Christianity." Common Knowledge 26, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 88–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-7899599.
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This contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium on xenophilia examines the life choices of two Jews who loved Christianity. Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik, born into an ultra-Orthodox, nineteenth-century rabbinic dynasty in Lithuania, spent much of his life writing a Hebrew commentary on the Gospels in order to document and argue for the symmetry or symbiosis that he perceived between Judaism and Christianity. Oswald Rufeisen, from a twentieth-century secular Zionist background in Poland, converted to Catholicism during World War II, became a monk, and attempted to immigrate to Israel as a Jew in 1958. Rufeisen, while permitted to move to Israel to join a Carmelite monastery in Haifa, was denied the right to immediate citizenship of Israel which the Law of Return guarantees to all bona fide Jews. And this particular Soloveitchik has largely been forgotten, given the limits of Jewish interest in the New Testament and of Christian attention to rabbinic literature. This article explores the complex and vexing questions that the careers of these two men raise about the elusive distinctions between Judaism and Christianity, on the one hand, and, on the other, between the Jewish religion and Jewish national identity.
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Marciano, Yoel, and Haggai Mazuz. "Writings of Jewish Converts to Islam against Their Forebears’ Faith: a Subgenre of Interreligious Polemical Literature." Review of Rabbinic Judaism 27, no. 1 (April 1, 2024): 91–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700704-20240005.
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Abstract Islamic polemical literature against Judaism is typified by the repetition of ideas expressed in previous generations alongside growth and development in new directions. This article focuses on writings against Judaism by Jews who willingly converted to Islam. These converts’ texts reveal meaningful and unique characteristics that justify their being considered a subgenre of the polemical literature. This largely results from the converts’ intimate acquaintance with their forebears’ Jewish faith, thought, and rituals. This knowledge enabled them to raise new and original arguments, primary among them from Hebrew literature, which was not accessible to Muslims from birth. The article concludes with insights about the converts’ writings and the utility of identifying them as a subgenre for the study of Muslim-Jewish polemic.
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Kavka, Martin. "Judaism and Christianity in Jewish Ethics of the 1950s." Journal of Jewish Ethics 7, no. 1-2 (December 1, 2021): 63–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/jjewiethi.7.1-2.0063.
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ABSTRACT Jewish ethics emerged as an autonomous field of inquiry in the second half of the twentieth century. But it is worthwhile inquiring as to what it emerged from. This essay examines a very limited data set—the first twenty issues of the journal Judaism, dating from the beginning of 1952 to the end of 1956—in order to offer a preliminary answer to this question. The answer suggested by the data set is that “Jewish ethics” was one of many sites in the mid-twentieth century for the negotiation, within Jewish intellectual life, of Jews' relationship with the Christianized West. The lead article in the first issue of Judaism suggested that the Jewish tradition held ethical values in opposition to those of Christianity; by the end of 1956, both Jewish and Christian ethics had become bedfellows under the rubric of “religious ethics.”
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Chan, Chung-Yan Joyce. "Commands from Heaven: Matteo Ricci's Christianity in the Eyes of Míng Confucian Officials." Missiology: An International Review 31, no. 3 (July 2003): 269–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182960303100302.
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Much scholarship on Father Matteo Ricci has been focused on the Jesuit missiological approach of accommodation. This essay investigates how the Chinese scholar officials in the Ming Dynasty perceived Ricci's presentation of the Christianity. The first section of the article deals with the sociopolitical context of Ricci's work. The second section discusses Ricci's presentation of the Christian message. Finally, the third section—through the writings of two key Chinese converts, Xú Guangqi and Yáng Tíngyún—looks at why Christianity won over Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism) as the religion of choice for the Confucian scholars.
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Kampling, Rainer, and Karma Ben Johanan. "Historical and Political Reflections on the Jewish-Christian Dialogue." European Judaism 56, no. 2 (September 1, 2023): 36–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ej.2023.560205.
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Abstract The Jewish-Christian dialogue has a dynamic, ongoing character, which impacts greatly not only on the relations between the two faith communities, but also on the self-reflection of each community itself (Kampling). Considered from a political point of view, moreover, the Jewish-Christian dialogue is characterised by a structural asymmetry, which has at least three underlying reasons: (1) the numerical imbalance between Christian and Jewish communities; (2) the different ways Christianity and Judaism perceive each other; and (3) the different roles assumed by Christianity and Judaism throughout history (Ben Johanan).
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Libel-Hass, Einat, and Elazar Ben-Lulu. "Are You Our Sisters? Resistance, Belonging, and Recognition in Israeli Reform Jewish Female Converts." Politics and Religion Journal 18, no. 1 (March 7, 2024): 131–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.54561/prj1801131l.
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The religious conversion process is a significant expression of an individual’s intention to gain a new religious identity and be included in a particular religious community. Those who wish to join the Jewish people undergo giyur (conversion), which includes observing rituals and religious practices. While previous research on Jewish conversions in Israel focused on the experiences of persons who converted under Orthodox auspices, this study analyzes the experiences of female immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and the Philippines who chose to convert through the Reform Movement in Israel. Based on qualitative research, we discovered that the non-Orthodox process, which is based on liberal values, not only grants converts under the aegis of Reform entry to the Jewish people, but promotes their affiliation with the Reform Movement and advances their acculturation into Jewish Israeli society. Their choice is a political decision, an act of resistance against an Orthodox Israeli religious monopoly, and an expression of spiritual motivations. The converts become social agents who strengthen the Reform Movement’s socio-political position in Israel, where it struggles against discrimination. Furthermore, since most converts are women, new intersections between religion, gender, and nationality are exposed.
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Doss, M. Christhu. "Indian Christians and The Making of Composite Culture in South India." South Asia Research 38, no. 3 (September 28, 2018): 247–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0262728018798982.
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While North India erupted in rebellion in 1857, South India was experiencing a range of cross-cultural contests between missionary Christianity and local converts, who protested against Indian culture being dismissed as a work of the devil. Converts in the emerging Christian communities, particularly in South India, made efforts to retain their indigenous cultural ethos as part of their lived experience. Early attempts to balance Indian identity with Christian beliefs and practices were later replicated in a second anti-hegemonic movement by claims of Indian Christians for respectful inclusion into the new composite nation of postcolonial India. This article brings out how these two processes of asserting hybridity and equity developed. The initial impact of hegemonising Christianity created a chasm between missionaries and converts, which especially the latter addressed constructively. After 1857, emboldened British hegemonic and missionary activities sparked further divisive identity politics, feeding fresh rebellious ambitions that needed to be pacified to maintain the empire. As more culturally conscious Indian Christians realised that missionary Christianity was antithetical to their lived experiences as part of an emerging Indian nation, they used educational strategies to strengthen the formation of India’s composite culture, so that India’s Christians could now (re)assert their rightful place within the postcolonial nationalist framework, despite contentions from majoritarian forces.
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AĞALAR, Şaban. "Conversion and Polemic in the Late-Fifteenth Century Ottoman Empire: Two Polemical Treatises Against Judaism." Osmanlı Araştırmaları 59, no. 59 (July 24, 2022): 31–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.18589/oa.1145635.
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Two Jewish converts to Islam in the service of Bayezid II penned the earliest known anti-Jewish polemicals in the Ottoman Empire. This article aims at exploring the historical context of the two epistles and their connection with Islamic polemical literature. The simultaneous appearances of Abd al-Salam’s Risāla al-hādiya and Abd al-Allam’s Risāla al-ilzām al-Yahūd will be discussed in the context of the Sephardic influx to the Ottoman lands, an encounter that stimulated scholarly interest in the Jewish faith among Ottoman intellectuals. At first glance, the two treatises seem to be structured so as to persuade a Jewish audience to embrace the Muslim faith by abandoning their former religion. However, the choice of Arabic instead of Hebrew, and the circulation of the texts primarily among Muslim readers suggest that ad- dressing the Jews appears to have been a rhetorical tactic. Considering the negative connotations attached to converts by the Ottoman elite, the authors might also have viewed the composition of anti-Jewish treatises as an effort to distance themselves from their Jewish past.
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Lasker, Daniel J. "Jewish-Christian Polemics at the Turning Point: Jewish Evidence from the Twelfth Century." Harvard Theological Review 89, no. 2 (April 1996): 161–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017816000031965.
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In 1968 Amos Funkenstein published an article in Hebrew entitled “Changes in the Patterns of Christian Anti-Jewish Polemics in the 12th Century.” In that article, Funkenstein argues that Christian attitudes toward Jews underwent a change in the twelfth century, a change discernable in the Christian polemical literature of the period. In contrast to the previous Christian strategy of polemicizing against Judaism through a battery of prooftexts, ortestimonia, the innovative polemics introduced three important elements—the recourse to reason, the attack on the Talmud, and the use of the Talmud to prove the truth of Christianity. These innovations signaled the beginning of the end of the relative Christian tolerance of Jews and Judaism inspired by the writings of Augustine.
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Jagodzińska, Agnieszka. "Badania nad konwersją: nowe trendy, metody, wyzwania." Studia Judaica, no. 2 (46) (2021): 425–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.4467/10.4467/24500100stj.20.021.13664.
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Research on Jewish Conversion: New Trends, Methods, and Challenges This review article addresses the recent popularity of studies on Jewish conversion. In particular, it examines the volume Bastards and Believers: Jewish Converts and Conversion from the Bible to the Present edited by Theodor Dunkelgrün and PawełMaciejko (Philadelphia, 2020). The author of the article suggests looking at this volume as at a representative example of recent trends, themes, methods, and challenges present in studying Jewish conversion.
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Laugrand, Frédéric B., and Jarich G. Oosten. "Inuit women in the process of the conversion to Christianity in the Canadian eastern Arctic: 1894–1945." Polar Record 51, no. 5 (November 20, 2014): 513–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003224741400062x.
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ABSTRACTArctic missionaries have been studied extensively as agents of change but the role of Inuit women in the adoption of Christianity has been largely overlooked. In this paper we discuss Inuit women who played an important role in the processes of evangelisation and conversion. We focus on the first converts in South Baffin Island as well as the cases of Teresikuluk, a young woman who tried to turn her relatives from shamanism to Christianity, and of Pelagie, the first Inuit nun, in the Kivalliq. The missionaries often presented these women as role models choosing the right path in contrast to other individuals who kept their ‘pagan’ that is shamanic traditions. For these Inuit women, Christianity was attractive as it freed them from many ritual restrictions, providing them with more freedom and power. Many women were among the first converts, but in most areas men took the leading roles as preachers and evangelists. It proved to be hard for women to pursue a religious career and here the constraints of their social roles played an important part.
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Upadhyay, Prakash. "Restructuring Spiritualism in New Life: Conversion to Christianity in Pokhara, Nepal." Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 9, no. 1 (December 31, 2020): 135–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jjis.v9i1.35283.
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Christianity entered Nepal more than three and half centuries ago but religious conversion is still a contentious issue. This paper explores the trend of conversion to Christianity in Pokhara, Nepal. The study method was qualitative and quantitative. Observation, interview schedule and case study guidelines were used to obtain data from 70 converts of AG Church, Fulbari, Pokhara. The study findings reveal that females and oppressed of all caste/ethnicities with low occupational status were more interested in conversion. With no single cause of conversion, process and consequence, there is a nexus between conversion and modernity, consequences and the elements of continuity. With healing and church charity as the key motivations behind conversion, people convert with different intentions to overcome health problems, discontent with present religion, for money, friends and family influences. Christian church activates charities/supports for conversion. Conversion as a choice is a product of modern individualism, and the converts perceived contentment and changes in post-convert life. The accusation that conversion to Christianity is for financial gains may be valid for those who come with expectations, but the majority converts economic status is not satisfactory. In the absence of a state sponsored health and social security system, prevailing socioeconomic inequalities and pseudo-scientific non-medics superstition of church, conversion may be a way to break predominant sociocultural hierarchy/barriers. Hence, it should not be very surprising that many more will adopt Christianity in future. Educational systems should be reformed to reflect each religion’s genuine teaching and ideology and hence generate awareness on proselytizing.
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Herzig, Tamar. "Religious Attraction and Its Discontents: Tensions Surrounding the Monachization of Baptized Jews in Early Modern Italy." Renaissance and Reformation 47, no. 2 (July 22, 2024): 7–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.33137/rr.v47i2.43675.
Full textAbstract:
Both female monasticism and Jewish conversion acquired an accentuated significance in Catholic Europe during the age of reformations. Their convergence was ritually expressed in the celebration of the monastic vestition of converts from Judaism. This article centres on the experiences of baptized Jewish girls who entered monastic communities, based on an analysis of cases from central and northern Italy. It argues that Church authorities valued the radical break of formerly Jewish girls with the religious traditions of their ancestors. Yet at the same time, the highly esteemed attraction to female monasticism on the part of baptized Jews could also arouse considerable anxiety, which led to distancing attempts. These, the article suggests, were manifested by restricting converts’ monastic professions to designated institutions; by giving the cold shoulder to baptized Jews who took the veil and socially isolating them within their communities; or by not assisting sickly neophytes to fulfill their religious vocations.