Yosi Yisraeli | Bar-Ilan University (original) (raw)
Papers by Yosi Yisraeli
HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN. A Journal for the Study of the History and Culture of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry, 2024
This study examines Paul’s proto-rabbinic image that emerges from Pablo de Santa María’s (d.1435)... more This study examines Paul’s proto-rabbinic image that emerges from Pablo de Santa María’s (d.1435) biblical commentaries (the Additiones) and polemical dialogue (the
Scrutinium scripturarum). By piecing together the scattered evidence, the study shows that Pablo de Santa María (a) systematically used rabbinic sources to reconstruct Paul’s Jewish world; (b) advocated the use of Talmudic texts for reinterpreting Paul’s own readings and understanding of Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament) in innovative ways; and (c) identified the Pauline concepts of mystery and fides ex auditu with rabbinic axioms of
oral tradition (kabbalah) and revelation. As will be suggested, this daring perspective on Paul reflects a wider intellectual current that evolved among Jewish converts to Christianity in late medieval Iberia.
Hispania Judaica Bulletin 15, 2024
This volume of Hispania Judaica Bulletin presents the first collection of studies dedicated to th... more This volume of Hispania Judaica Bulletin presents the first collection of studies dedicated to the impact of the Iberian converso crisis on the interpretation of Paul's life and teachings. We believe this to have been a significant historical phenomenon-one which we may call Converso Paulinisms. By way of introduction, we briefly present the main developments from which this concept derives its rationale and the productive end we hope it can serve. We begin with the lessons we learned from recent developments in Pauline studies and the readings of Paul by Church authorities, theologians, and contemporary thinkers. Then, we move on to consider their implications in Late Medieval and Early Modern setting of the converso phenomenon.
Sefarad, 2023
This article presents a short treatise on inter-faith oaths, hitherto unnoticed, by the theologia... more This article presents a short treatise on inter-faith oaths, hitherto unnoticed, by the theologian and canonist Alonso de Madrigal, “El Tostado” (c.1438). It shows that Madrigal approved Jewish oaths on the Torah based on an extraordinarily favorable attitude towards the Hebrew Bible – claiming it was a Christian book no less than a Jewish one. Furthermore, Madrigal discussed the practice of Christians who swear on the Torah– examining whether it constitutes a sin of Judaization. Thus, his treatise offers us an early testimony on the problem of converso Judaization and their habit of swearing “like Jews”. Madrigal’s positions on this issue were very different from the inquisitorial norms that would dominate the Peninsula by the end of the century. He was willing
to approve converso behaviors that would be deemed as scandalous within only a few years. Hence, illustrating how dynamic was the accusation of Judaization. As it will be suggested, Madrigal’s unique position concerning oaths on the Torah was a part of a larger intellectual approach toward the Bible and the Jewish origins of the Church, that was popular among Iberian scholars of the early 15th century.
Iberia Judaica , 2023
This article presents three stories that were secretly expurgated from Pablo de Santa María's (d.... more This article presents three stories that were secretly expurgated from Pablo de Santa María's (d.1435) biography, published by Cristóbal de Sanctotis in his 1591 edition of Pablo's Scrutinium scripturarum. The three censured texts all concern Pablo's mysterious noble lineage and are based on local rumors in the town of Burgos. As I sugget, the 1591 edition was prepared as a part of the Santa María family's campaign to obtain a royal exemption from all purity of blood regulations (which they successfully did in 1604). As part of this public and legal effort, Pablo was celebrated for his exceptional accomplishments, virtues and lineage, and his image was recrafted to meet the inquisitorial ideals of sixteenth-century Spain as vehemently anti-Jewish. Yet, at certain points, this creative effort seemed to have crossed the line, provoking a royal intervention to quietly remove three textual units from the new edition. After introducing the evidence for this unusual procedure, the three texts (that survived in one copy of the edition) are presented in full. According to the first, Pablo's father belonged to the De la Cavallería family from Saragossa, which allegedly obtained special royal privileges on account to their noble origins that go all the way to the Bible. The second censured text, tells that Pablo's mother was the biological daughter of King Alfonso XI and Queen Maria of Portugal, who traded her with a Jewess for an infant boy (that would become King Pedro I of Castile). The third rumor claims that Pablo's mother was the lovechild that Juan Núñez III de Lara had with a certain noble maiden, and whom they gave to Jewish parents to raise.
AJS Review, 2022
This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pabl... more This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pablo de Santa María (c. 1352-1435). It argues, in contrast to previous assessments, that far from being a failed replica of Christian scholastic formulas, they echo the conversionist or "apostatic" argumentation that proselytes to Christianity were making in Jewish quarters, a polemic that was not shaped by a scholastic-inquisitorial perspective but rather was still very much rabbinic in style and methods. The article traces echoes of this intra-Jewish polemic, using the extraordinary corpus of Abner of Burgos (d. 1347). It focuses on three themes: the antirabbinic allusions to Zechariah's prophecy; the historical-hermeneutical brawl over the identity of Edom; and the notion of talmudic-demonic alliance. Evaluating the potential agency that Pablo's peculiar texts could have had among Christian readership, I propose that his critique of talmudic literature undermined important aspects of the Christian antitalmudic tradition, reframing the Talmud according to rabbinic conventions.
Speculum, 2022
This article recovers a fifteenth-century debate over the meaning of the category "conversos." De... more This article recovers a fifteenth-century debate over the meaning of the category "conversos." Departing from the standard account, in which "conversos" is seen as a neutral category designating Jewish ancestry, we demonstrate that in fifteenth-century Castile, the question of "who is a converso?" had a much less certain answer. Rather than a consistent view of how Jewish converts and their descendants should be classified, contemporary discourses reveal a myriad of options and a deep sense of consciousness about the implications of terminological choices. Drawing on a large range of historical sources, we analyze this terminological struggle, while paying special attention to the debates that followed the revolt of Toledo of 1449. We examine the arguments made by those who sought-or resisted-labeling the descendants of Jews as "conversos" or "neophytes." Furthermore, we explain how debates over such labels were linked to broader interpretations of the meaning of conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Finally, we demonstrate that although the descent-based interpretation of "conversos" eventually prevailed, the problem of classifying Christians of Jewish descent continued to haunt political discourses well into the reign of Isabel I and Fernando II (1474-1504).
Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker, 2021
This article addresses Joshua HaLorki's discussion of faith (emunah), as it appears in his famous... more This article addresses Joshua HaLorki's discussion of faith (emunah), as it appears in his famous letter to the convert Pablo de Santa Maria. It suggests that ha-Lorki weighed against each other competing models of faith, that he deemed crucial for the issue of conversion, As I argue, the choice upon which ha-Lorki contemplated was not between the religion of the intellect and mystic beliefs, as some have argued; but rather between the volitional model of scholastic fides, and the religion of tradition.
HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN, 2019
This article deals with the transfer and fusion of scientific-biblical knowledge among Jews, conv... more This article deals with the transfer and fusion of scientific-biblical knowledge among Jews, converts, and Christians in the 1390s. Following up on hints supplied by a cryptic Hebrew report, the article tracks and explores a biblical-scientific discovery revealed by the convert Pablo de Santa María (the former Shelomo Halevi) in his commentary on Genesis 1:9. In that text, Pablo combined the latest Christian scientific theories of his day with Jewish biblical traditions and thus shaped a new explanation for both the baffling equilibrium between earth and water and the scriptural formulation: “Let the waters be gathered”. As the article shows, while naturalistic readings of this passage were quite common among Christians, in the Sephardic intellectual elite to which Pablo belonged it was almost a doctrinal principle to take these words as pointing to divine intervention in the order of nature. Accordingly, Pablo’s new providential-physical explanation made a significant impression on his Christian audience and became, in a famous Hebrew epistle by the crypto-Jewish convert, Profayt Duran, a token of his scholarly accomplishments. For us, however, it can provide a remarkable example for the kind of intellectual synergy among Jews, converts, and Christians in those years.
Medieval Encounters, 2018
This article presents a new reading of the polemical strategies and arguments embodied in the “an... more 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.
RAMON MARTÍ’S PUGIO FIDEI STUDIES AND TEXTS, 2018
Contesting Inter-Religious Conversion in the Medieval World
The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and transformative contact betw... more The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and transformative contact between cultures in the Middle Ages. From the seventh to the seventeenth centuries, the three civilizations into which the region came to be divided geographically - the Islamic world, the Greek East, and the Latin West - were busily redefining themselves vis-à-vis one another. Interspersed throughout the region were communities of minorities, such as Christians in Muslim lands, Muslims in Christian lands, heterodoxical sects, pagans, and, of course, Jews. One of the most potent vectors of interaction and influence between these communities in the medieval world was inter- religious conversion: the process whereby groups or individuals formally embraced a new religion. The chapters of this book explore this dynamic: what did it mean to convert to Christianity in seventh-century Ireland? What did it mean to embrace Islam in tenth-century Egypt? Are the two phenom- ena comparable on a social, cultural, and legal level? The chapters of the book also ask what we are able to learn from our sources, which, at times, provide a very culturally charged and specific conversion rhetoric. Taken as a whole, the compositions in this volume set out to argue that inter-religious conversion was a process that was recognizable and comparable throughout its geographical and chronological purview.
Journal of Levantine Studies, 2016
Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference: Commentary Conflict and Community in the Premodern Mediterranean, 2015
Religious Conversion: Historical Experience and Meanings, 2014
a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a... more a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m © Copyrighted Material a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material Religious Conversion 186
Books by Yosi Yisraeli
Collected essays volume on the Pugio fidei, the chef-d'oeuvre of the Catalan Dominican Ramon Mart... more Collected essays volume on the Pugio fidei, the chef-d'oeuvre of the Catalan Dominican Ramon Martí from ca. 1280
The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and trans- formative contact be... more The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and trans- formative contact between cultures in the Middle Ages. From the seventh to the seventeenth centuries, the three civilizations into which the region came to be divided geographically – the Islamic world, the Greek East, and the Latin West – were busily redefining themselves vis-à-vis one another. Interspersed throughout the region were communities of minorities, such as Christians in Muslim lands, Muslims in Christian lands, heterodoxical sects, pagans, and, of course, Jews. One of the most potent vectors of interaction and influence between these communities in the medieval world was inter- religious conversion: the process whereby groups or individuals formally embraced a new religion. The chapters of this book explore this dynamic: what did it mean to convert to Christianity in seventh-century Ireland? What did it mean to embrace Islam in tenth-century Egypt? Are the two phenom- ena comparable on a social, cultural, and legal level? The chapters of the book also ask what we are able to learn from our sources, which, at times, provide a very culturally charged and specific conversion rhetoric. Taken as a whole, the compositions in this volume set out to argue that inter-religious conversion was a process that was recognizable and comparable throughout its geographical and chronological purview.
Talks by Yosi Yisraeli
The Center for the Study of Conversion Annual Conference, June 20th-23rd 2016, 2016
Alonso Fernandez de Madrigal (c.1410-1455) – the bishop of Ávila — is widely known as a key figur... more Alonso Fernandez de Madrigal (c.1410-1455) – the bishop of Ávila — is widely known as a key figure in the emerging school of Salamanca and as one of the most prolific writers of his generation. Yet, it seems that his contribution to the development of Biblical criticism in the 15th century has not been fully acknowledged yet. This paper argues that Madrigal was able to create a unique synthesis between the linguistic criticism of the “Vulgate” that conversos around him developed based on their rabbinic knowledge, and the new theoretical apparatus of philology and translation that evolved in the Italian Humanism. Thus, under a thick veil of scholastic rhetoric and gestures, Madrigal introduced bold claims about the Latin text of the "Vulgate" and Jerome’s function as a translator that preceded the rise of "biblical humanism" in Italy. This paper explores one such example, in which Madrigal acknowledge that some defects in Jerome’s translation reflect an exegetical misjudgment that originated from Midrashic literature.
Conference Presentations by Yosi Yisraeli
HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN. A Journal for the Study of the History and Culture of Spanish and Portuguese Jewry, 2024
This study examines Paul’s proto-rabbinic image that emerges from Pablo de Santa María’s (d.1435)... more This study examines Paul’s proto-rabbinic image that emerges from Pablo de Santa María’s (d.1435) biblical commentaries (the Additiones) and polemical dialogue (the
Scrutinium scripturarum). By piecing together the scattered evidence, the study shows that Pablo de Santa María (a) systematically used rabbinic sources to reconstruct Paul’s Jewish world; (b) advocated the use of Talmudic texts for reinterpreting Paul’s own readings and understanding of Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament) in innovative ways; and (c) identified the Pauline concepts of mystery and fides ex auditu with rabbinic axioms of
oral tradition (kabbalah) and revelation. As will be suggested, this daring perspective on Paul reflects a wider intellectual current that evolved among Jewish converts to Christianity in late medieval Iberia.
Hispania Judaica Bulletin 15, 2024
This volume of Hispania Judaica Bulletin presents the first collection of studies dedicated to th... more This volume of Hispania Judaica Bulletin presents the first collection of studies dedicated to the impact of the Iberian converso crisis on the interpretation of Paul's life and teachings. We believe this to have been a significant historical phenomenon-one which we may call Converso Paulinisms. By way of introduction, we briefly present the main developments from which this concept derives its rationale and the productive end we hope it can serve. We begin with the lessons we learned from recent developments in Pauline studies and the readings of Paul by Church authorities, theologians, and contemporary thinkers. Then, we move on to consider their implications in Late Medieval and Early Modern setting of the converso phenomenon.
Sefarad, 2023
This article presents a short treatise on inter-faith oaths, hitherto unnoticed, by the theologia... more This article presents a short treatise on inter-faith oaths, hitherto unnoticed, by the theologian and canonist Alonso de Madrigal, “El Tostado” (c.1438). It shows that Madrigal approved Jewish oaths on the Torah based on an extraordinarily favorable attitude towards the Hebrew Bible – claiming it was a Christian book no less than a Jewish one. Furthermore, Madrigal discussed the practice of Christians who swear on the Torah– examining whether it constitutes a sin of Judaization. Thus, his treatise offers us an early testimony on the problem of converso Judaization and their habit of swearing “like Jews”. Madrigal’s positions on this issue were very different from the inquisitorial norms that would dominate the Peninsula by the end of the century. He was willing
to approve converso behaviors that would be deemed as scandalous within only a few years. Hence, illustrating how dynamic was the accusation of Judaization. As it will be suggested, Madrigal’s unique position concerning oaths on the Torah was a part of a larger intellectual approach toward the Bible and the Jewish origins of the Church, that was popular among Iberian scholars of the early 15th century.
Iberia Judaica , 2023
This article presents three stories that were secretly expurgated from Pablo de Santa María's (d.... more This article presents three stories that were secretly expurgated from Pablo de Santa María's (d.1435) biography, published by Cristóbal de Sanctotis in his 1591 edition of Pablo's Scrutinium scripturarum. The three censured texts all concern Pablo's mysterious noble lineage and are based on local rumors in the town of Burgos. As I sugget, the 1591 edition was prepared as a part of the Santa María family's campaign to obtain a royal exemption from all purity of blood regulations (which they successfully did in 1604). As part of this public and legal effort, Pablo was celebrated for his exceptional accomplishments, virtues and lineage, and his image was recrafted to meet the inquisitorial ideals of sixteenth-century Spain as vehemently anti-Jewish. Yet, at certain points, this creative effort seemed to have crossed the line, provoking a royal intervention to quietly remove three textual units from the new edition. After introducing the evidence for this unusual procedure, the three texts (that survived in one copy of the edition) are presented in full. According to the first, Pablo's father belonged to the De la Cavallería family from Saragossa, which allegedly obtained special royal privileges on account to their noble origins that go all the way to the Bible. The second censured text, tells that Pablo's mother was the biological daughter of King Alfonso XI and Queen Maria of Portugal, who traded her with a Jewess for an infant boy (that would become King Pedro I of Castile). The third rumor claims that Pablo's mother was the lovechild that Juan Núñez III de Lara had with a certain noble maiden, and whom they gave to Jewish parents to raise.
AJS Review, 2022
This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pabl... more This article revisits two Latin antitalmudic texts penned by the converted bishop of Burgos, Pablo de Santa María (c. 1352-1435). It argues, in contrast to previous assessments, that far from being a failed replica of Christian scholastic formulas, they echo the conversionist or "apostatic" argumentation that proselytes to Christianity were making in Jewish quarters, a polemic that was not shaped by a scholastic-inquisitorial perspective but rather was still very much rabbinic in style and methods. The article traces echoes of this intra-Jewish polemic, using the extraordinary corpus of Abner of Burgos (d. 1347). It focuses on three themes: the antirabbinic allusions to Zechariah's prophecy; the historical-hermeneutical brawl over the identity of Edom; and the notion of talmudic-demonic alliance. Evaluating the potential agency that Pablo's peculiar texts could have had among Christian readership, I propose that his critique of talmudic literature undermined important aspects of the Christian antitalmudic tradition, reframing the Talmud according to rabbinic conventions.
Speculum, 2022
This article recovers a fifteenth-century debate over the meaning of the category "conversos." De... more This article recovers a fifteenth-century debate over the meaning of the category "conversos." Departing from the standard account, in which "conversos" is seen as a neutral category designating Jewish ancestry, we demonstrate that in fifteenth-century Castile, the question of "who is a converso?" had a much less certain answer. Rather than a consistent view of how Jewish converts and their descendants should be classified, contemporary discourses reveal a myriad of options and a deep sense of consciousness about the implications of terminological choices. Drawing on a large range of historical sources, we analyze this terminological struggle, while paying special attention to the debates that followed the revolt of Toledo of 1449. We examine the arguments made by those who sought-or resisted-labeling the descendants of Jews as "conversos" or "neophytes." Furthermore, we explain how debates over such labels were linked to broader interpretations of the meaning of conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Finally, we demonstrate that although the descent-based interpretation of "conversos" eventually prevailed, the problem of classifying Christians of Jewish descent continued to haunt political discourses well into the reign of Isabel I and Fernando II (1474-1504).
Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker, 2021
This article addresses Joshua HaLorki's discussion of faith (emunah), as it appears in his famous... more This article addresses Joshua HaLorki's discussion of faith (emunah), as it appears in his famous letter to the convert Pablo de Santa Maria. It suggests that ha-Lorki weighed against each other competing models of faith, that he deemed crucial for the issue of conversion, As I argue, the choice upon which ha-Lorki contemplated was not between the religion of the intellect and mystic beliefs, as some have argued; but rather between the volitional model of scholastic fides, and the religion of tradition.
HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN, 2019
This article deals with the transfer and fusion of scientific-biblical knowledge among Jews, conv... more This article deals with the transfer and fusion of scientific-biblical knowledge among Jews, converts, and Christians in the 1390s. Following up on hints supplied by a cryptic Hebrew report, the article tracks and explores a biblical-scientific discovery revealed by the convert Pablo de Santa María (the former Shelomo Halevi) in his commentary on Genesis 1:9. In that text, Pablo combined the latest Christian scientific theories of his day with Jewish biblical traditions and thus shaped a new explanation for both the baffling equilibrium between earth and water and the scriptural formulation: “Let the waters be gathered”. As the article shows, while naturalistic readings of this passage were quite common among Christians, in the Sephardic intellectual elite to which Pablo belonged it was almost a doctrinal principle to take these words as pointing to divine intervention in the order of nature. Accordingly, Pablo’s new providential-physical explanation made a significant impression on his Christian audience and became, in a famous Hebrew epistle by the crypto-Jewish convert, Profayt Duran, a token of his scholarly accomplishments. For us, however, it can provide a remarkable example for the kind of intellectual synergy among Jews, converts, and Christians in those years.
Medieval Encounters, 2018
This article presents a new reading of the polemical strategies and arguments embodied in the “an... more 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.
RAMON MARTÍ’S PUGIO FIDEI STUDIES AND TEXTS, 2018
Contesting Inter-Religious Conversion in the Medieval World
The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and transformative contact betw... more The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and transformative contact between cultures in the Middle Ages. From the seventh to the seventeenth centuries, the three civilizations into which the region came to be divided geographically - the Islamic world, the Greek East, and the Latin West - were busily redefining themselves vis-à-vis one another. Interspersed throughout the region were communities of minorities, such as Christians in Muslim lands, Muslims in Christian lands, heterodoxical sects, pagans, and, of course, Jews. One of the most potent vectors of interaction and influence between these communities in the medieval world was inter- religious conversion: the process whereby groups or individuals formally embraced a new religion. The chapters of this book explore this dynamic: what did it mean to convert to Christianity in seventh-century Ireland? What did it mean to embrace Islam in tenth-century Egypt? Are the two phenom- ena comparable on a social, cultural, and legal level? The chapters of the book also ask what we are able to learn from our sources, which, at times, provide a very culturally charged and specific conversion rhetoric. Taken as a whole, the compositions in this volume set out to argue that inter-religious conversion was a process that was recognizable and comparable throughout its geographical and chronological purview.
Journal of Levantine Studies, 2016
Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference: Commentary Conflict and Community in the Premodern Mediterranean, 2015
Religious Conversion: Historical Experience and Meanings, 2014
a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a... more a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m © Copyrighted Material a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m a s h g a t e . c o m © Copyrighted Material © Copyrighted Material Religious Conversion 186
Collected essays volume on the Pugio fidei, the chef-d'oeuvre of the Catalan Dominican Ramon Mart... more Collected essays volume on the Pugio fidei, the chef-d'oeuvre of the Catalan Dominican Ramon Martí from ca. 1280
The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and trans- formative contact be... more The Mediterranean and its hinterlands were the scene of intensive and trans- formative contact between cultures in the Middle Ages. From the seventh to the seventeenth centuries, the three civilizations into which the region came to be divided geographically – the Islamic world, the Greek East, and the Latin West – were busily redefining themselves vis-à-vis one another. Interspersed throughout the region were communities of minorities, such as Christians in Muslim lands, Muslims in Christian lands, heterodoxical sects, pagans, and, of course, Jews. One of the most potent vectors of interaction and influence between these communities in the medieval world was inter- religious conversion: the process whereby groups or individuals formally embraced a new religion. The chapters of this book explore this dynamic: what did it mean to convert to Christianity in seventh-century Ireland? What did it mean to embrace Islam in tenth-century Egypt? Are the two phenom- ena comparable on a social, cultural, and legal level? The chapters of the book also ask what we are able to learn from our sources, which, at times, provide a very culturally charged and specific conversion rhetoric. Taken as a whole, the compositions in this volume set out to argue that inter-religious conversion was a process that was recognizable and comparable throughout its geographical and chronological purview.
The Center for the Study of Conversion Annual Conference, June 20th-23rd 2016, 2016
Alonso Fernandez de Madrigal (c.1410-1455) – the bishop of Ávila — is widely known as a key figur... more Alonso Fernandez de Madrigal (c.1410-1455) – the bishop of Ávila — is widely known as a key figure in the emerging school of Salamanca and as one of the most prolific writers of his generation. Yet, it seems that his contribution to the development of Biblical criticism in the 15th century has not been fully acknowledged yet. This paper argues that Madrigal was able to create a unique synthesis between the linguistic criticism of the “Vulgate” that conversos around him developed based on their rabbinic knowledge, and the new theoretical apparatus of philology and translation that evolved in the Italian Humanism. Thus, under a thick veil of scholastic rhetoric and gestures, Madrigal introduced bold claims about the Latin text of the "Vulgate" and Jerome’s function as a translator that preceded the rise of "biblical humanism" in Italy. This paper explores one such example, in which Madrigal acknowledge that some defects in Jerome’s translation reflect an exegetical misjudgment that originated from Midrashic literature.
Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval, 2022
Medieval Encounters, 2022
Mediterranean Historical Review, 2021
concepts like "union", "progress", "equality" and "freedom" is here compressed into a view of tra... more concepts like "union", "progress", "equality" and "freedom" is here compressed into a view of transnational linkages between coal mines. Across the longer sweep of the book's eight chapters, such analytical choices result in a peculiar winnowing of the possibilities available to those who found reason to challenge coalonialism's steep inequalities and structures of domination: either direct confrontations with the material conditions surrounding coal's extraction and combustion or modes of critique emanating from the shifting currents of Islamic thought. In showing how fear of disaster could serve as "an ethical force directing man to the righteous path" (191) or how the shar'i designation of coal as rikaz or "buried treasure" could underwrite Ottoman uses of fossil wealth for charity (218), Barak's nuanced excavation of Islamic knowledge production around coal technologies and their hazards in the book's fifth and sixth chapters is clearly intended to unearth elements of a usable past. In the book's moving conclusion, through a daring leap into the present, he makes explicit the sense of urgency attending this search for alternative lifeways and imaginaries that might inform the "painstaking political work" of decarbonizing the world (226). But such compelling arguments about the messy and complex entanglements of global carbonization are undercut by the markedly narrower criteria according to which specific actions, concepts and movements appear to "count" as part of that political work within the book itself. Even if, in places, Barak's methodological commitments thus serve to obscure the full range of political forces and ideas that might be directed against the powers of fossil fuel, he has written a magnificent study that reveals the breath-taking magnitude and sweep of the struggles that remaking a world forged out of coal's blazing flames will entail.