Debating Truth

The Barcelona Disputation of 1263

Nina Caputo (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

256 Seiten

2016
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
9780190226367 (ISBN)

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A graphic history that uses a theological disputation to explore interfaith relations, the complicated dynamics between Christians and Jews in medieval Spain, and the nature of truth.

In the summer of 1263, Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, ca 1195-1270), who was Aragon (1213-1276) to debate with a Dominican Friar named Paul about specific claims concerning the Messiah in Judaism and Christianity. Friar Paul had converted from Judaism to Christianity as an adult, so he brought with him some knowledge of rabbinic texts, which he used to challenge the faith of Jews in Provence and northern Spain. His strategy was entirely innovative. Using passages from the Talmud, a foundation of Jewish life in the diaspora claimed that Jewish leaders recognized that Jesus was the messiah. The Barcelona dispuation was an officially sanctioned opportunity for Friar Paul to perform this kind of argument. it was conducted in a public forum at the roayal palace before an audience of Jewish and Christian dignitaries The two disputants, each thoroughly convinced of the indisputable truth of his own religious faith and theological interpretations, argued for his position before a panel of judges headed by James I himself. Nina Caputo's new graphic history tells the story of the Barcelona Disputation from Nahmanides' perspective.

By combining the visual power of graphics with primary sources, contextualizing essays, historiography, and study questions, Debating Truth explores issues of the nature of truth, interfaith relations, and the complicated dynamics between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the medieval Mediterranean.

Nina Caputo is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the UCLA, and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Caputo is a scholar of medieval Jewish history and interfaith relations in medieval Europe. She has received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and the American Philosophical Society. Her first book, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, Messianism (2007), explores the history of encounters between Jewish and Christian interpretations of history and redemption. She has also co-editied Faithful Narratives: Historians, Religion, and the Challenge of Objectivity (Cornell, 2014) with Dr. Andrea Sterk. She is currently working on a book that uses Petrus Alfonsi to explore the figure of the convert and conversion in the Christian middle ages and a collection of essays.

Preface
Acknowledgements

Part I: Graphic history
Chapter 1."Our lord king ordered me to debate Friar Paul..."
Chapter 2. "We have three types of books..."
Chapter 3. "Jesus never walked with the righteous in the Garden of Eden..."
Chapter 4. "Moses, called master, having been summoned by the lord king..."
Chapter 5. "I write this letter to you from Jerusalem..."

Part II: The Primary Sources
Document I: Nahmanides' Hebrew Account of the Barcelona Disputation
Document II: The Latin Account of the Barcelona Disputation
Document III: A letter from King James I permitting the Dominicans to compel Jews to attend public sermons and protecting the property and freedoms of those who convert
Document IV: A letter from James I calling for the burning of copies of one of Maimonides' books on charges that it contained statements blaspheming Jesus
Document V: Letter from James I to the Jewish communities of the Crown of Aragon instructing them to attend Friar Paul's sermons
Document VI: Letter from James I limiting the friars' freedom to compel Jews to attend their sermons
Document VII: James I's report of tribunal investigating charges that Nahmanides had blasphemed
Document VIII: Letter of reprimand from Pope Clement IV to James I
Document IX: Letter from Nahmanides to his son describing the physical landscape of Palestine. This document includes important demographic and political information as well as details about daily life in late thirteenth-century Palestine
Document X: Selected canons from the Fourth Lateran Council concerning the statement of the Catholic creed,
definition of heresy, a call for regulations governing Jewish business and public conduct, and a statement of privileges and rewards for those who participate in renewed military campaigns to the Holy Land

Part III: Context
1. Reconquista and the Boundaries of Christendom
2. King James the Conqueror (1213-1276)
3. The Jews of Spain
4. Disputation in Medieval Society and Culture

Part IV: Historiography
Modern and Medieval Traces of the Barcelona Disputation
Making This Book: Sources, Historical Narrative, and Visual Media

Part V: Resources for Further Research
Questions
Sources for Additional Reading
Glossary
Maps and Figures

Erscheinungsdatum	06.08.2016
Reihe/Serie	Graphic History Series
Illustrationen	Liz Clarke
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	175 x 251 mm
Gewicht	726 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-13	9780190226367 / 9780190226367
Zustand	Neuware