Medieval Jews and the Christian Past

The historical consciousness of medieval Jewry has engendered livelydebate in the scholarly world. The focus in this book is on the historicalconsciousness of the Jews of Spain and southern France in the late Middle Ages,and specifically on their perceptions of Christianity and Christian history andculture. In his detailed analysis of Jews’ understanding of the history of thecommunities they lived among, Ram Ben-Shalom shows that in these southernEuropean lands Jews experienced a relatively open society that was sensitive toand knowledgeable about voices from other cultures, and that this hadsignificant consequences for shaping Jewish historical consciousness.

Amongthe topics that receive special attention are what Jews knew of the significance of Rome, of Jesus and the early days ofChristianity, of Church history, and of the history of the Iberian monarchies. Ben-Shalom demonstrates that, despite thenegative stereotypes of Jewry prevalent in Christian literature and increasingfamiliarity with that literature, they were more influencedby their interactions with Christian society at the local level. Consequentlythere was no single stereotype that dominated Jewish thought, and frequentlylittle awareness of the two societies as representing distinct cultures.

This book contributes to medieval Jewishintellectual history on many levels, demonstrating that, in Spain and southernFrance, Jews of the later Middle Ages evinced a genuine interest in history,including the history of non-Jews, and that in some cases they were deeplyfamiliar with Christian and sometimes also classical historiography. In providinga comprehensive survey of the multiple contexts in which historiographicalmaterial was embedded and the many uses to which it was put, it enriches ourunderstanding of medieval historiography, polemic, Jewish-Christian relations,and the breadth of interests characterizing Provencal and Spanish Jewishcommunities.