Monday, January 30, 2012

JEWS & the MIDDLE AGES - What would be a good book about the Jewish-Christian debates of the middle ages?

I have read that in something like the 11th or 12th century was the first time there were formalzed debates between Jewish and Christian intellectuals contasting their theologies. What are example of good books and authors about this subject?

Thx in advance.JEWS %26amp; the MIDDLE AGES - What would be a good book about the Jewish-Christian debates of the middle ages?
In addition to books, I found that there is a dramatization of The Disputation - Nachmanides Debates Before King James of Aragon..use a search engine with those terms and you'll find it..
Here is a good narrative on these particular debates: http://www.jewishhistory.org/
"Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, Nachmanides, was born in Gerona, Spain. He would become the leader of Spanish Jewry. Perhaps the most dramatic event in his life was the Great Debate. It is a watershed in Jewish history.
King James I of Aragon was a very devoted Roman Catholic. In his court was a Jew by the name of Pablo Christiani – whom the Church called Friar Paul – who had converted to Roman Catholicism. He told the king that he was a Hebrew scholar (the king was barely literate) and that he would be able to prove from the Hebrew Bible and Talmud the truth of Christianity and the falsehood of Judaism. Furthermore, he could prove it to the greatest rabbi of the time, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman
The king thought that if he could convince the greatest rabbi of the veracity of Christianity the rest of the Jews would follow and he would have his ticket to heaven, indeed a front row seat.
Not only did he authorize a debate, but in history this debate marked the beginning of a series of debates –lasting some three centuries — in medieval Europe." click the link above to read more
Here is another reference for you. http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles…
The debates were almost always utilized to begin a persecution of a Jewish community and sometimes resulted in charges of Passover blood libels or accusations of bringing the "Black Death" .
And one last link for you. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/09-…
For the lazy who won't go there since this is the most interesting IMHO
..." the disputation between the Ramban
(Nachmanides, not the Rambam) and Pablo Christiani, a Jew from
Provence who became a Karaite and later a convert to Catholicism.
Christiani had King James of Aragon's ear, and was able to convince
the king to host the dispute. It was written up in a polemic by R'
Chaim (Charles) Chavel, for which there is an English translation
published by Shilo (1983), titled "Disputation at Barcelona". It is
also the topic of Rabbi Dr. David Berger's PhD thesis and much of his
book "Jewish-Christain Debate in the High Middle Ages", published by
Aaronson in 1979. Some historical context is provided in from
"Barcelona and Beyond: The Disputation of 1263 and Its Aftermath" by
Robert Chazan, Berkeley: University of California Press (1992).
Lastly, "The Disputation", a play re-enacting the debate, is available
on video from a number of anti-missionary groups. (Try
[5]http://www.outreachjudaism.org/)
First, the use of "the" is probably incorrect, as there were many such
disputations. They started around 1240 CE, when Nicholas Donin
(another convert) challenged the local Rabbis to defend the Talmud
against challenges of racism and anti-Christianity in the Talmud. They
won the battle but lost the war, they won the dispute but the Talmuds
were burned by the cartload anyway.
Another famous disputation ran for two years. The Tortosa
"disputation" (1413-14), between St. Vincent Ferrer and the apostate
Geronimo and the local Jewish leaders. In this disputation, they let
the Jews defend the gemara, but not attack Christianity. When the
French Jewish community fled in the 1300s, and the Spanish and
Portugese were force out in the 1490s, the trend of disputations
ended
The dispute at Barcelona was near unique in that it let both sides
have equal say. The key topics were Christianity, the Jewish
definition of messiah, and proving the messiah hadn't yet come.
Nachmanides relied heavily on logic, rather than purely citing
sources. Again, Nachmanides won the battle, but lost the war--he had
to flee Spain.JEWS %26amp; the MIDDLE AGES - What would be a good book about the Jewish-Christian debates of the middle ages?
Mein Kampf.

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