Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam
Coercion and Faith in Premodern Iberia and Beyond
Published on 1. November 2019
Book
Hardback
432 pages
978-90-04-41681-9 (ISBN)
Description
Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula but examining related European and Mediterranean contexts as well, Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam traces how Christians, Jews, and Muslims grappled with the contradictory phenomenon of faith brought about by constraint and compulsion. Forced conversion brought into sharp relief the tensions among the accepted notion of faith as a voluntary act, the desire to maintain "pure" communities, and the universal truth claims of radical monotheism. Offering a comparative view of an important yet insufficiently studied phenomenon in the history of religions, this collection of essays explores the ways in which religion and violence reshaped these three religions and the ways we understand them today.
Reviews / Votes
"Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam is an immensely rewarding collection of essays, every paper stimulating, well written, and of the highest quality. It provokes the reader to ask further questions connected withthe phenomenon."- Alastair Hamilton, The Warburg Institute, London, UK, Church History and Religious Culture 100 (2020).
"This collection is a timely and strong addition to a growing field of scholarship on conversion, in which the work of Mercedes Garcia-Arenal is already central. It will be of great use to scholars and students working on themes of religion, violence, and the relationships between people of different faith communities from social, legal, and theological perspectives, as well as on themes of memory (see especially Vidal Doval, Verskin, and Marcocci), childhood (notably Marmursztejn and Garcia-Arenal), identity, belonging and exclusion."
- Stephanie M. Cavanaugh, Exeter College, University of Oxford, UK, Journal of Jesuit Studies, 8 (2021).
"Based on a conference in Madrid 2016, the volume is dedicated to topics and theories in the history of forced conversions in medieval and early modern Iberia. (...) the introduction is a noticeable summary of illuminating thoughts, and a remarkable effort to integrate the different chapters of the volume into one research programme. (...) the impact and importance of forced conversions in medieval Iberia go far beyond the geographical scope and time limit of the actual events and that they need to bother all historians and scholars of religion up to the present day - independently of our respective research foci and interests."
- Sina Rauschenbach, University of Potsdam, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 72 (2021).
"In sum, this volume is an important contribution not only for the analysis of conversion but for the study of the history of religion and how religious identities are created and shaped."
- Javier Albarran Iruela, Sehepunkte, Rezensionsjournal fuer die Geschichtswissenschaften, 21.6 (2021).
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
780 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-41681-9 (9789004416819)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mercedes Garcia-Arenal is Research Professor at the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), and historian of religion and culture. She is the PI of ERC Advanced Grant CORPI (Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics and Interaction).
Yonatan Glazer-Eytan is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently completing a dissertation on the crime and cult of sacrilege in early modern Spain.
Yonatan Glazer-Eytan is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently completing a dissertation on the crime and cult of sacrilege in early modern Spain.
Content
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Forced Conversion and the Reshaping of Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Tradition, Interpretation, History
?Mercedes Garcia-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan
Part 1: Visigoth Legislation on Forced Conversion and Its Afterlife
?1?Uses and Echoes of Visigothic Conciliar Legislation in the Scholastic Controversy on Forced Baptism (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries)
?Elsa Marmursztejn
?2?"Qui ex Iudeis sunt": Visigothic Law and the Discrimination against Conversos in Late Medieval Spain
?Rosa Vidal Doval
?3?Theorizing Coercion and Consent in Conversion, Apostasy, Ordination, and Marriage (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries)
?Isabelle Poutrin
Part 2: Eschatology, Radical Universalism, and Remembrance: Forced Conversion during the Almohad Rule
?4?Again on Forced Conversion in the Almohad Period
?Maribel Fierro
?5?The Intellectual Genealogy of Almohad Policy towards Christians and Jews
?David J. Wasserstein
?6?Medieval Jewish Perspectives on Almohad Persecutions: Memory, Repression and Impact
?Alan Verskin
Part 3
Rethinking Will: The Forced Conversion of Jews
in 1391 and Beyond
?7?On the Road to 1391? Abner of Burgos / Alfonso of Valladolid on Forced Conversion
?Ryan Szpiech
?8?The Development of a New Language of Conversion in Fifteenth-Century Sephardic Jewry
?Ram Ben-Shalom
?9?Incriminating the Judaizer: Inquisitors, Intentionality, and the Problem of Religious Ambiguity after Forced Conversion
?Yonatan Glazer-Eytan
?10?The Coerced Conversion of Convicted Jewish Criminals in Fifteenth-Century Italy
?Tamar Herzig
Part 4: Between Theology and History
?11?"Neither through Habits, nor Solely through Will, but through Infused Faith": Hernando de Talavera's Understanding of Conversion
?Davide Scotto
?12?Remembering the Forced Baptism of Jews: Law, Theology, and History in Sixteenth-Century Portugal
?Giuseppe Marcocci
?13?Theologies of Baptism and Forced Conversion: The Case of the Muslims of Valencia and Their Children
?Mercedes Garcia-Arenal
?14?Epilogue: Conversion and the Force of History
?David Nirenberg
Index
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Forced Conversion and the Reshaping of Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Tradition, Interpretation, History
?Mercedes Garcia-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan
Part 1: Visigoth Legislation on Forced Conversion and Its Afterlife
?1?Uses and Echoes of Visigothic Conciliar Legislation in the Scholastic Controversy on Forced Baptism (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries)
?Elsa Marmursztejn
?2?"Qui ex Iudeis sunt": Visigothic Law and the Discrimination against Conversos in Late Medieval Spain
?Rosa Vidal Doval
?3?Theorizing Coercion and Consent in Conversion, Apostasy, Ordination, and Marriage (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries)
?Isabelle Poutrin
Part 2: Eschatology, Radical Universalism, and Remembrance: Forced Conversion during the Almohad Rule
?4?Again on Forced Conversion in the Almohad Period
?Maribel Fierro
?5?The Intellectual Genealogy of Almohad Policy towards Christians and Jews
?David J. Wasserstein
?6?Medieval Jewish Perspectives on Almohad Persecutions: Memory, Repression and Impact
?Alan Verskin
Part 3
Rethinking Will: The Forced Conversion of Jews
in 1391 and Beyond
?7?On the Road to 1391? Abner of Burgos / Alfonso of Valladolid on Forced Conversion
?Ryan Szpiech
?8?The Development of a New Language of Conversion in Fifteenth-Century Sephardic Jewry
?Ram Ben-Shalom
?9?Incriminating the Judaizer: Inquisitors, Intentionality, and the Problem of Religious Ambiguity after Forced Conversion
?Yonatan Glazer-Eytan
?10?The Coerced Conversion of Convicted Jewish Criminals in Fifteenth-Century Italy
?Tamar Herzig
Part 4: Between Theology and History
?11?"Neither through Habits, nor Solely through Will, but through Infused Faith": Hernando de Talavera's Understanding of Conversion
?Davide Scotto
?12?Remembering the Forced Baptism of Jews: Law, Theology, and History in Sixteenth-Century Portugal
?Giuseppe Marcocci
?13?Theologies of Baptism and Forced Conversion: The Case of the Muslims of Valencia and Their Children
?Mercedes Garcia-Arenal
?14?Epilogue: Conversion and the Force of History
?David Nirenberg
Index