Ryan Vandermeer
Chazan, Robert. “The Thirteenth Century.” Daggers
of Faith: Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing and JewishResponse.
In the
second chapter of Chazan’s book, Daggers of Faith:
Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response,
the focus is upon the reasoning behind “missionizing” of the Jews and
Muslims in Medieval Europe. The
author begins by describing the status of the church in the 13th
century: “aperiod of vigor and progress was also a period of insecurity and
concern” (27). The bishops and the
pope held high power as the number of their followers was growing.
As any power does, the church quickly sought out threats of heresy that
could potentially harm their control on belief. The first threat was the Muslims.
To prevent Islamic ideas from becoming too prevalent, the first of many
“missionizing” campaigns began. The
church did so very intelligently, as they used the knowledge of the Koran to
their advantage. The missionaries
argued strong points discrediting Islam, and, thus, engaged in many debates.
This approach led to greater questioning of the Islamic religion by its
followers, and, therefore, created the foundation to many conversions. The
second threat, and the most feared, was the Jews.
The general idea of the time is simply put, “To overlook the Jews would
be to court danger” (30). Christians
questioned why “…those people most directly conversant with God’s initial
revelation could fail to read its implications correctly” (30).
This was viewed as irrational and as a reason for concern.
Jewish moneylenders had a great deal of power in medieval society, and
this, too, threatened the Christians. As
far as they were concerned, the “Jews were guests who must not abuse the
hospitality” (32). Chazan goes on to discuss the freedoms taken from the Jews.
Christians wanted to keep contact between followers of the two faiths to
a minimum. Therefore, marriage
between Jews and Christians was unlawful. Also,
to ensure Christian superiority, Jews couldn’t own slaves or hold public
office. The benefits of converting
became crystal clear. As the “missionizing” began to work on the Jews,
another threat became prevalent. Just
as the Christians verbally abused the Jews, the Jews did the same.
Converts from the Jewish faith, to show their allegiance to their new
faith, provided evidence of derogatory remarks towards the Christian church.
This led to the banning of the Talmud, a Jewish text often containing
anti-Christian remarks.
Chazan’s work is very helpful to anyone who has an
interest in the Christian view of the Jews.
Though it does mention interesting facts about Muslim conversion
techniques, the majority of the work is focused on the Jews.
A viewpoint that is not easily understood, “why the Jews are a
threat,” is clearly explained. Though
it isn’t justified, the reader is able to understand why the Christians deemed
it necessary to 1) convert the Jews, or 2) create distance between the two religions.
Durant,
Will. “The Mind and Heart of the Jew: 500-1300.”
The Age of Faith.
The seventeenth chapter of
Will Durant’s The Age of Faith
explains the influence of Islamic culture on the Jews.
He starts by explaining that Jews desired learning and knowledge.
They were, however, held back by a “hostile world.”
Though they lived through great persecution, they managed to produce
great scientists, philosophers, doctors, and many other great minds.
They did so while staying in touch with Islamic culture.
Many Jews read Arabic, and used Arabic techniques in their literature.
Durant provides examples of Jewish poetry with Arabic meter and form.
The author spends much of this chapter discussing the lives and works of
Jewish writers. For instance,
Avicebron was raised in poverty, found security in the town of
Durant’s work is not very
helpful to most readers. The fact
that Jewish literature has Arabic influence is interesting, but it ends there.
The author provides too much unnecessary information about the authors of
the works he chose to present, and not enough information regarding the source
of the Muslim influence. It is important because, as he says, due to Arabic
influence, Jewish poetry was able to develop its own forms and themes, and enjoy
a golden period in its literary history. Why isn’t the info on the writers’
lives necesarry? As Durant shows, their lives and poetry often are combined.
Liebman, Seymour B.
“Departure from
Seymour Liebman begins in 1492.
This
work is very helpful. It has
insight, but yet includes many facts. It
is not written using obscure vocabulary or difficult concepts.
It is very reader-friendly. The
author begins by taking an eventful year, and explaining how each event affected
the Jews. He later describes the
events leading to the expulsion of the Jews.
He uses quotes from various primary documents to illustrate the opinions
of participants in the era.
Contreras, Jaime. “Family and Patronage: The Judeo-Converso
Minority in
This work was very interesting. It provides many facts and input into the lives of this secret minority. To gain information from the reading, however, one must sort through a lot of unnecessary information. The ideas expressed in the work don’t come together until the end. To make it easier, the editors have included summaries at different points throughout the chapters to keep the reader on track. This helps make sense of useful information that may otherwise be missed.