Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany.Dean Phillip Bell and Stephen G. Burnett, eds. Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany. Studies in Central European Histories 37. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006. xxxii + 572 pp. index. illus. tbls. bibl. $129. ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 90-06-14947-3. Reformation-era Jewish-Christian relations in Germany is a field in search of a synthesizing monograph. With this collection, Bell and Burnett take an initial step both in sketching the outlines of a historically problematic area--because of the peripheral role of the Reformation for German Judaism, most of the research concerns the Christian side and is implicitly or explicitly motivated by a single matter, plumbing the prehistory prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to of the Holocaust--and assembling what scholars working in the area know about it. Readers may disagree that their concluding assertion is sustained by the volume's essays: that the Reformation's impact on Jews (and their reciprocal responses) suggest "German Jews The Jewish presence in Germany is older than Christianity; the first Jewish population came with the Romans to the city Cologne. A "Golden Age" in the first millennium saw the emergence of the Ashkenazi Jews, while the persecution and expulsion that followed the Crusades led to the ... had a Reformation, whether they needed one or not" (xxxi). The volume does not include enough evidence to convince the reader that Reformation is a useful category in either the history of Judaism or anti-Semitism. But it substantiates a gathering consensus that Jews and Judaism are not just a peripheral aspect of Reformation history, but stand instead--perhaps because of the Reformation's enhanced biblicism--at the very center of Christian, reform, and European self-understandings. A first section traces the ambivalent roots of this centrality with contributions by Erika Rummel on humanist attitudes and Christopher Ocker on fifteenth-century preaching. Despite their source preoccupations, humanists often dismissed Hebrew studies; preaching and theology also avoided real engagement with Jews in favor of an idealized i·de·al·ize v. i·de·al·ized, i·de·al·iz·ing, i·de·al·iz·es v.tr. 1. To regard as ideal. 2. To make or envision as ideal. v.intr. 1. anti-Judaism. A second section treats Reformers' attitudes (plus an essay by Robert Bireley that emphasizes the lacking novelty of Catholic Reformation attitudes). Experienced readers who doubt anything remains to be written on this topic will be surprised by Thomas Kaufmann's spirited essay on Luther, which moves beyond rehashing old material to make fully congruent Luther's foci in 1523 and the 1540s via his Christology--a new definitive work on the issue. Kaufmann deftly treats the contemporary relevance of Luther's attitudes, though he overvalues the impact of the "Luther to Hitler" thesis and Daniel Goldhagen. Timothy Wengert provides valuable new information and a subtle, differentiated perspective on Melanchthon's attitudes. R. Gerald Hobbs's exemplary discussion of Bucer analyzes biblical commentaries This is an outline of exegesis. Discussed are the salient points of Jewish, patristic, medieval, and modern commentaries, starting with the Jewish writers. The topic starts with the Targums, Mishna, and Talmuds. to reveal the extent of Bucer's Christian Hebraism, offering a corrective to blanket characterizations of his anti-Jewish hostility. Hans-Martin Kirn fills in the picture for Zwingli and Achim Detmers for Calvin, and Joy Kammerling Smith presents the most detailed English account available of Andreas Osiander's defense of the Jews, key evidence in discussions of Reformation philo-Semitism. Michael Driedger's account of Anabaptist attitudes also points us toward biblicism, though much of it concerns reasons for scholarly comparison of Anabaptists with Jews. Part 3 treats representations of the Jews with essays by Maria Diemling on Anthonius Margaritha's work and Yaacov Deutsch on Christian ethnographies of Judaism. Petra Schoner reprises REPRISES. The deductions and payments out of lands, annuities, and the like, are called reprises, because they are taken back; when we speak of the clear yearly value of an estate, we say it is worth so much a year ultra reprises, besides all reprises. 2. her problematic monograph on visual representations, and Edith Wenzel treats literary representation in relationship to popular culture. The volume closes with its strongest section, on responses to the Reformation, including essays by Dean Bell on patterns of Jewish settlement, a gratifying grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. piece by Elisheva Carlebach Dr. Elisheva Carlebach Yoffen is a professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY in New York City specializing in Jewish studies and has written widely on subjects relating to classical Judaism and its rabbinic personalities, such as Moses Hagiz. on Jewish reactions to the Reformation that updates Hayim Ben-Sasson's still-classic work, Jay Berkowitz's brief piece on transformations in Minhagim, and Burnett's discussion of the Reformation's impact on Jewish printing. The volume encapsulates the field's current state, bringing much material into English for the first time. This recapitulation recapitulation, theory, stated as the biogenetic law by E. H. Haeckel, that the embryological development of the individual repeats the stages in the evolutionary development of the species. of arguments is most valuable in Detmers's essay, since all the authors of section 2 dialog with his (controversial) Reformation und Judentum (2001) in their notes; in some other cases it is less effective--though a collection like this is always dependent on what is currently available. The one real lacuna lacuna /la·cu·na/ (lah-ku´nah) pl. lacu´nae [L.] 1. a small pit or hollow cavity. 2. a defect or gap, as in the field of vision (scotoma). in the book is deeper consideration of the local legal position of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire Holy Roman Empire, designation for the political entity that originated at the coronation as emperor (962) of the German king Otto I and endured until the renunciation (1806) of the imperial title by Francis II. ; I wanted a longer essay on the intriguing responsa Responsa (Latin: plural of responsum, "answers") comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. that end Bell's essay. Some readers may miss a definitive essay on the "anti-Judaism vs. anti-Semitism" problem that defined this field for so long, though all of the essays in part 1 revolve around it. Its concerns make this volume desirable for libraries serving postgraduate and undergraduate audiences. Specialists will harvest the essays they need singly. SUSAN R. BOETTCHER University of Texas at Austin “University of Texas” redirects here. For other system schools, see University of Texas System. The University of Texas at Austin (often referred to as The University of Texas, UT Austin, UT, or Texas |
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