The Jewish-Christian Encounter in Medieval Preaching

Jonathan Adams is Reader and Academy Researcher for the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in the Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University.

This book explores the complexity of preaching as a phenomenon in the medieval Jewish-Christian encounter. This was not only an "encounter" as physical meeting or confrontation (such as the forced attendance of Jews at Christian sermons that took place across Europe), but also an "imaginary" or theological encounter in which Jews remained a figure from a distant constructed time and place who served only to underline and verify Christian teachings. Contributors also explore the Jewish response to Christian anti-Jewish preaching in their own preaching and religious instruction.

1. Introduction: The Jewish-Christian Encounter in Medieval Preaching Jonathan Adams and Jussi Hanska Part I: Regional Studies 2. Preaching and Jews in Late Antique and Visigothic Iberia Raúl González Salinero 3. Sub Iudaica Infirmitate - "Under the Jewish Weakness": Jews in Medieval German Sermons Regina D. Schiewer 4. Preaching About an Absent Minority: Medieval Danish Sermons and Jews Jonathan Adams Part II: Preachers and Occasions 5. "Our Sister Is Little and Has No Breasts": Mary and the Jews in the Sermons of Honorius Augustodunensis Kati Ihnat 6. The Anti-Jewish Sermons of John of Capistrano: Matters and Context Filippo Sedda 7. The Effects of Bernardino da Feltre's Preaching on the Jews Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli 8. Sermons on the Tenth Sunday After Holy Trinity: Another Occasion for Anti-Jewish Preaching Jussi Hanska Part III: Symbols and Images 9. Beauty and the Bestiary: Animals, Wonder, and Polemic in Medieval Ashkenaz David I. Shyovitz 10. The Origin of a Medieval Anti-Jewish Stereotype: The Jews as Receivers of Stolen Goods (Twelfth to Thirteenth Centuries) Giacomo Todeschini 11. The Roles of Jews in the Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni: Loyal Citizens, People to be Converted, Enemies of the Faith Pietro Delcorno 12. Mendicants and Jews in Florence Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby 13. Preaching to the Jews in Early Modern Rome: Words and Images Martine Boiteux