Course Description

The course will examine the varied relations between Jews and Christians from antiquity to the present, focusing on the ways in which Jews and Christians have thought about and represented the other, and the issues that have divided the two communities.  We will trace the origins of Christian anti-Judaism and examine how theology, culture, politics, and economics contributed to the formation of antisemitism in the Medieval and modern periods.  We will also study how Jews have understood Christianity and responded to Christian claims about Jews and Judaism.

Course Objectives

• To understand the perceptions and attitudes that Jews and Christians have had toward one another, how those attitudes have been expressed in religious and secular literature, and how those attitudes have manifested themselves in personal, social, and legal relations.
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  To understand how politics, economics, science, and culture have influenced relations between Jews and Christians.
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  To understand the connection between inter-group relations and identity formation, and what a group’s perception of the Other says about or contributes to its own self-definition.

Course Materials

Required texts

Additional materials