Description
In Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity, M. Lindsay Kaplan expands the study of the history of racism through an analysis of the Christian concept of Jewish hereditary inferiority. Imagined as a figural slavery, this idea anticipates modern racial ideologies in creating a status of permanent, inherent subordination. Unlike other studies of early forms of racism, this book places theological discourses at the center of its analysis. It traces an intellectual history of the Christian doctrine of servitus Judaeorum, or Jewish enslavement, imposed as punishment for the crucifixion. This concept of hereditary inferiority, formulated in patristic and medieval exegesis through the figures of Cain, Ham, and Hagar, enters into canon law to enforce the spiritual, social, and economic subordination of Jews to Christians. Characterized as perpetual servitude, this status shapes the construction of Jews not only in canon law, but in medicine, natural philosophy, and visual art. By focusing on inferiority as a category of analysis, Kaplan sharpens our understanding of contemporary racism as well as its historical development. The damaging power of racism lies in the ascription of inferiority to a set of traits and not in bodily or cultural difference alone; in the medieval context, theological authority affirms discriminatory hierarchies as a reflection of divine will. Medieval theological discourses created a racial rationale of Jewish hereditary inferiority that also served to justify the servile status of Muslims and Africans. Kaplan's discussion of this history uncovers the ways in which racism circulated in pre-modernity and continues to do so in contemporary white supremacist discourses that similarly seek to subordinate these groups.
About the Author
M. Lindsay Kaplan is Professor of English at Georgetown University where she teaches courses on representations of race and religion in early modern drama. She authored The Culture of Slander in Early Modern England, numerous essays on The Merchant of Venice and produced an edition of the play in the Bedford/St. Martin's Texts and Contexts series.
Reviews
By persuasively showing how religious discourse about Jews may have contributed to later ideas of racialized somatic "hereditary inferiority," Figuring Racism reminds us that marginalizing Jews may obscure important aspects of medieval European history. * Magda Teter, Fordham University, Speculum *
Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity makes an important contribution to the history of race and racism in later medieval Europe. Kaplan draws together a diverse array of scholarship by medievalists and early modernists in literature, history, and art history and analyzes both theology and canon law ... the breadth of her research is impressive * Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, The American Historical Review *
This is a well-written and thought-provoking book, which will open the eyes of students and scholars of racism to the importance of theology. * Anna Sapir Abulafia, Archa Verbi *
"Illuminating. * Irven M. Resnick, Antisemitism Studies *
FNovember 2021 * Thomas W. Barton, University of San Diego, Journal of Religion and Violence *
By delineating the construction of racist ideas, this book hopes to pave the way to dismantling it. Moreover, it will be a valuable contribution to many fields in the humanities, for the insights it offers, and the presence of many bibliographical references forms a strong basis for future studies on the subject. * Veronica De Duonni, Cerae *
This impressive study demonstrates how medieval Christian theology played a pivotal role in Western European constructions of racism, and it reminds us of the unnerving extent to which medieval Christian intellectual effort was directed towards the subordination of others, especially Jews. It is therefore as important a contribution to Jewish studies as it is to the study of racism and should be consulted by medievalists working across disciplines. * Debra Higgs Strickland, The Journal of Theological Studies *
Recently, medieval studies as a discipline has turned to race as an important heuristic category for reading medieval texts. M. Lindsay Kaplan's Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity is a significant intervention into this discussion, and it will take its place alongside other seminal studies that consider the category of race in the Middle Ages ... an important book not only for medievalists but for all readers. * Heather Blurton, Modern Philology *
Historians will continue to navigate warily around any premodern use of the word "racism". They will be right to do so. As a reminder, however, that the persecuted and dispossessed share a common experience, whether Jewish, African, Amerindian (or for that matter Athenian, Carthaginian or Palestinian), Kaplan's enquiry offers salutary and uncomfortable reading. * Nicholas Vincent, The Tablet *
Given the importance of the scholarly conversation about racism, this book will be valuable in many fields in the humanities. * C.C. Stayer, CHOICE *
it makes excellent use of quotations, with helpful footnote Latin. The reader is taken deeply into the complications of the way in which medieval authors saw Jews, Muslims, and non-white people. * Gillian Evans, Church Times *
Kaplan develops the compelling argument that medieval theological discourses of Jewish servitude - based on Christian typological readings of figures like Cain, Ham, and Ishmael - worked to establish Jews as an inferior race. This notion of cursed servitude, elaborated originally on spiritual grounds, nonetheless also contributed to the construction of Jewish bodies as deficient and Jewish inferiority as hereditary. Ultimately also applied to Muslims and Africans, it provided one significant foundation for later European racism. Kaplan's study is groundbreaking. * Steven F. Kruger, author of The Spectral Jew: Conversion and Embodiment in Medieval Europe *
Arguing that race and religion were closely associated in medieval Europe, Kaplan focuses on the particular influence of theological concepts of inferiority, subordination, and figural slavery. Her meticulous research persuades that Christian justifications of perpetual Jewish servitude, often expressed through interpretations of biblical figures, not only buttressed anti-Jewish perspectives in canon law, natural philosophy, medicine, and psalm illustrations, but were repurposed to support anti-black and anti-Muslim racism. A crucial resource for anyone interested in the long history of race. * Valerie Traub, author of Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns *
M. Lindsay Kaplan's account is spot on. It details how supersessionist understandings of the relation between Christanity and Judaism are linked to figural readings of the Bible and to the Church doctrine of inherited Jewish inferiority that modeled and flowed into so-called 'modern' racism. It will help us better understand the links between anti-semitism and other forms of racism at a time when such understandings are desperately needed indeed. * Jonathan Boyarin, Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190678241
Author Lindsay Kaplan
Format Hardback
Page Count 308
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 658g
Dimensions(mm) 157mm * 236mm * 31mm
About the Author
M. Lindsay Kaplan is Professor of English at Georgetown University where she teaches courses on representations of race and religion in early modern drama. She authored The Culture of Slander in Early Modern England, numerous essays on The Merchant of Venice and produced an edition of the play in the Bedford/St. Martin's Texts and Contexts series.
Reviews
By persuasively showing how religious discourse about Jews may have contributed to later ideas of racialized somatic "hereditary inferiority," Figuring Racism reminds us that marginalizing Jews may obscure important aspects of medieval European history. * Magda Teter, Fordham University, Speculum *
Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity makes an important contribution to the history of race and racism in later medieval Europe. Kaplan draws together a diverse array of scholarship by medievalists and early modernists in literature, history, and art history and analyzes both theology and canon law ... the breadth of her research is impressive * Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, The American Historical Review *
This is a well-written and thought-provoking book, which will open the eyes of students and scholars of racism to the importance of theology. * Anna Sapir Abulafia, Archa Verbi *
"Illuminating. * Irven M. Resnick, Antisemitism Studies *
FNovember 2021 * Thomas W. Barton, University of San Diego, Journal of Religion and Violence *
By delineating the construction of racist ideas, this book hopes to pave the way to dismantling it. Moreover, it will be a valuable contribution to many fields in the humanities, for the insights it offers, and the presence of many bibliographical references forms a strong basis for future studies on the subject. * Veronica De Duonni, Cerae *
This impressive study demonstrates how medieval Christian theology played a pivotal role in Western European constructions of racism, and it reminds us of the unnerving extent to which medieval Christian intellectual effort was directed towards the subordination of others, especially Jews. It is therefore as important a contribution to Jewish studies as it is to the study of racism and should be consulted by medievalists working across disciplines. * Debra Higgs Strickland, The Journal of Theological Studies *
Recently, medieval studies as a discipline has turned to race as an important heuristic category for reading medieval texts. M. Lindsay Kaplan's Figuring Racism in Medieval Christianity is a significant intervention into this discussion, and it will take its place alongside other seminal studies that consider the category of race in the Middle Ages ... an important book not only for medievalists but for all readers. * Heather Blurton, Modern Philology *
Historians will continue to navigate warily around any premodern use of the word "racism". They will be right to do so. As a reminder, however, that the persecuted and dispossessed share a common experience, whether Jewish, African, Amerindian (or for that matter Athenian, Carthaginian or Palestinian), Kaplan's enquiry offers salutary and uncomfortable reading. * Nicholas Vincent, The Tablet *
Given the importance of the scholarly conversation about racism, this book will be valuable in many fields in the humanities. * C.C. Stayer, CHOICE *
it makes excellent use of quotations, with helpful footnote Latin. The reader is taken deeply into the complications of the way in which medieval authors saw Jews, Muslims, and non-white people. * Gillian Evans, Church Times *
Kaplan develops the compelling argument that medieval theological discourses of Jewish servitude - based on Christian typological readings of figures like Cain, Ham, and Ishmael - worked to establish Jews as an inferior race. This notion of cursed servitude, elaborated originally on spiritual grounds, nonetheless also contributed to the construction of Jewish bodies as deficient and Jewish inferiority as hereditary. Ultimately also applied to Muslims and Africans, it provided one significant foundation for later European racism. Kaplan's study is groundbreaking. * Steven F. Kruger, author of The Spectral Jew: Conversion and Embodiment in Medieval Europe *
Arguing that race and religion were closely associated in medieval Europe, Kaplan focuses on the particular influence of theological concepts of inferiority, subordination, and figural slavery. Her meticulous research persuades that Christian justifications of perpetual Jewish servitude, often expressed through interpretations of biblical figures, not only buttressed anti-Jewish perspectives in canon law, natural philosophy, medicine, and psalm illustrations, but were repurposed to support anti-black and anti-Muslim racism. A crucial resource for anyone interested in the long history of race. * Valerie Traub, author of Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns *
M. Lindsay Kaplan's account is spot on. It details how supersessionist understandings of the relation between Christanity and Judaism are linked to figural readings of the Bible and to the Church doctrine of inherited Jewish inferiority that modeled and flowed into so-called 'modern' racism. It will help us better understand the links between anti-semitism and other forms of racism at a time when such understandings are desperately needed indeed. * Jonathan Boyarin, Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, Cornell University *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190678241
Author Lindsay Kaplan
Format Hardback
Page Count 308
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 658g
Dimensions(mm) 157mm * 236mm * 31mm
