Intricate Interfaith Networks: The Variety of Jewish-Christian Contacts in the Middle Ages

Type: 
Workshop
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 9, Monument Building
Room: 
Gellner room
Monday, February 22, 2010 - 9:00am
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Date: 
Monday, February 22, 2010 - 9:00am to Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 4:00pm

Christians and Jews populated medieval Europe from the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean to the Baltic Sea and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Within these broad geographical limits groups and individuals set up an intricate network system of commerce, trade, finance as well as the exchange of professional knowledge from philosophical concepts to domestic medical know-how.

Recent scholarship has shown that the denomi¬national divide, although ever present and at times even violently so, did not stop people from forming ties and expanding in more intricate ways and forms than previously thought. At times, these networks functioned with what seems to be a disregard to the denominational and religious difference. This is by no means a simple and self evident statement. The theologi¬cal background regarding “other” faiths within each respective religion, strong social, religious and authoritative circles criticizing such contacts if not discouraging them altogether created a formidable opposition to these contacts and networks.

The workshop intends to address this situation from various angles and disciplinary approaches and to suggest possible avenues for explaining the phenomenon.