Historicizing Allegory: The Jew as Hagar in Medieval Christian Text and Image
Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Christian thinkers turned rhetorically to the biblical servant Hagar (Genesis 16 and 21) to establish, or at least support, specific policies restricting Jewish interaction with Christians. Referencing St. Paul's allegorical interpreta...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2015]
|
| In: |
Church history
Year: 2015, Volume: 84, Issue: 2, Pages: 308-344 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hagar, Personagem bíblico
/ Bibel. Genesis 16,21
/ Judeus
/ Cristianismo
/ Idade Média
/ Sociedade
|
| RelBib Classification: | BH Judaism CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CH Christianity and Society HB Old Testament KAC Church history 500-1500; Middle Ages |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Over the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Christian thinkers turned rhetorically to the biblical servant Hagar (Genesis 16 and 21) to establish, or at least support, specific policies restricting Jewish interaction with Christians. Referencing St. Paul's allegorical interpretation of Abraham, Sarah, and her servant Hagar in his Epistle to the Galatians, they transformed a longstanding association of Hagar with the old law, synagogue, or a vague Jewish “other” into a figure representative of Jews living in their midst. The centrality of St. Paul's allegory in western Christian liturgical and exegetical traditions made it a useful framework for thinking about contemporary Christian-Jewish relations. This article is a consideration of the intertwining of biblical typology and history; an examination of the way one particularly rich typological reading came to give meaning to relationships between real Christians and Jews in medieval Europe. A proliferation of Hagar imagery in word and image offered a structure for thinking about Jewish policies in a way that moved beyond Augustine's insistence on toleration. The association of living Jews with the haughty, disrespectful, ungrateful servant sent away by Abraham provided an effective support for increasingly harsh treatment of Jews in Christian society. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1755-2613 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Church history
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0009640715000086 |