Shared Saints and Festivals among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Medieval Mediterranean

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-64189-149-3
Verlag: Arc Humanities Press

Buch, Englisch, 326 Seiten, Format (B × H): 238 mm x 158 mm, Gewicht: 640 g

Reihe: Jewish Engagements

This book explores shared religious practices among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, focusing primarily on the medieval Mediterranean. It examines the meanings members of each community ascribed to the presence of the religious other at "their" festivals or holy sites during pilgrimage. Communal boundaries were often redefined or dissolved during pilgrimage and religious festivals. Yet, paradoxically, shared practices served to enforce communal boundaries, since many of the religious elite devised polemical interpretations of these phenomena which highlighted the superiority of their own faith. Such interpretations became integral to each group’s theological understanding of self and other to such a degree that in some regions, religious minorities were required to participate in the festivals of the ruling community. In all formulations, “otherness” remained an essential component of both polemic and prayer.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cuffel, Alexandra

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie Liturgik, Christliche Anbetung, Sakramente, Rituale, Feiertage
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1. Holy Spaces and Holy Corpses: Defining sanctity and veneration of the dead from late antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Chapter 2. The Other as Witness to the Truth: Positive Responses to Shared Religious Veneration among Jewish and Christian Pilgrims to the Middle East from Western Europe

Chapter 3. Forceful Saints and Compelling Rituals: Real and Imagined Jewish and Muslim Participation in Christian Rituals and Saint Cults in Western Europe

Chapter 4. Praising, Cursing or Ignoring the Other: Jews, Christians, and Muslims at One Another’s Holy Spaces in the Islamicate World

Chapter 5. Opposition to Shared Saints and Festivals in the Islamicate World

Chapter 6. Upholding the Dignity of the Faith and Separating Believers and Unbelievers in Medieval Christian Societies

Chapter 7. From Practice to Polemic: Shared Saints and Festivals as ‘Women’s Religion’ in the Medieval Mediterranean

Chapter 8. Tales of Saintly Encounters

Conclusions

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Cuffel, Alexandra
Alexandra Cuffel is professor of Jewish Religion and History at Ruhr University, Bochum (Germany). Her research interests focus on medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relations.