Interfaith Encounters: Religious Polemics from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2024 | Viewed by 2129
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Religious polemics are a multifaceted phenomenon which can be defined as a discursive conflict, or a tool for discovering and disseminating “the truth,” motivated by a sense of mission. Their typology can be classified into strategies, methods, or arguments. A religious polemic manifests itself in literature intended for internal use or addressed to dispute opponents. It often includes the coercion of the opposite side to participate in public disputation, frequently ending in forced conversion, as we have encountered in medieval Christian–Jewish polemics. There are also examples of the voluntary participation of Jews, Muslims, and various Christian denominations in religious disputations, as in the case of radical Protestants in Poland. Religious polemics have been studied as part of research in theology, philosophy, sociology of religion, and history, with a focus on case studies and specific disputations or varieties of polemics.
This Special Issue is aimed at exploring religious polemics from the phenomenological standpoint, seeking to deepen our understanding of religious polemics in a wide cultural, historical, and social context. The articles will deal with a variety of religious polemics between monotheistic religions, sects, and denominations, as well as with polytheistic involvement in religious polemics. The chronological frame of the articles will encompass the early Middle Ages through to the 19th century. Articles presenting new methodological or comparative perspectives will be especially welcome.
Scholars are invited to submit essays on specific and general topics:
- Public disputation as social practice, its strategies, tactics, and tools; its role in the phenomenon of conversion;
- The typology of the polemics’ argumentation (e.g., exegetical, philosophical, or historical);
- Dynamics and changes in religious polemics through the lens of history;
- Polemical literature: authors, aims, and target audiences;
- Constructing the “religious other” through religious polemics;
- Research on religious polemics—new perspectives and methodologies.
Proposed deadlines:
- Abstract (about 200 words) submission deadline: 10 July 2023.
The abstracts are to be sent to the issue Editor, Professor Golda Akhiezer [email protected] or to the Religions Editorial Office [email protected]
- Notification of abstract acceptance: 3 September 2023
- Full manuscript deadline: 29 February 2024
Dr. Golda Akhiezer
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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Keywords
- religious polemics
- public disputations
- polemical literature
- theology
- methodology
- typology
- comparative religions
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: The Prophet Problem
Abstract: Certain recurring themes occur in polemics between the scriptural monotheisms. One of these revolves around prophecy and prophethood. Who is a “real” prophet, and who a “false prophet?” Scripture itself, which conveys the direct and unmediated will of God and is therefore a core authentification for the scriptural monotheisms, is conveyed through the medium of prophecy. Prophecy and prophethood represent a primary source for religious authority and truth, and as such, lie at the core of religious polemics.
The prophet problem was already recognized in the Hebrew Bible. In addition to the beloved prophets, there were those who conveyed messages on the authority of false gods (1 Kings 18), and others who conveyed false messages on the authority of the real God, the God of Israel (Jer.23:25-26). Prophets on the payroll of kings could give bad advice with prophetic authority, and competing prophets could give contradictory messages, all on the authority of the same God of Israel (1Kings 22:1-25).
The tension between “true” and “false” prophets continues in the relations between the scriptural monotheisms. Jews, for example, do not accept the authenticity of Jesus (who is identified in the NT as a prophet and who functions as one despite his title of messiah), and Jews and Christians do not accept the authenticity of Muhammad. But the rejection is uni-directional. Established religions reject new prophets, while new religions accept the prophets that lived before (but with certain qualifications). Each of the three classic scriptural monotheisms also declares an “end” to prophecy, but at different times. Yet despite these deadlines, each acknowledges that God could nevertheless send another prophet, leaving open the wild card for new prophecy, new revelation, and even new religion. This article will explore these and other trends associated with the problem of prophecy in religious polemics between the scriptural monotheisms.
Title: Christian anti-Islamic polemical motifs in Shimʿon Duran’s Qeshet u-magen
Abstract: In 1423, the Rabbi Shimʿon b. Ṣemaḥ Duran, who had fled his native Majorca after the anti-Jewish riots 1391 and settled in Algiers, wrote an anti-Islamic polemic titled Bow and Shield (Qeshet u-magen). Unlike his Jewish predecessors arguing against Islam, Duran did not defend the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic tradition, but attacked the rationality of Islam by scrutinizing the Qurʾānic teachings concerning God’s existence, theodicy, punishment or reward in the afterlife, and the Islamic concept of the inimitable linguistic perfection of the Qurʾān.
Duran’s labelling of Islam as an irrational and materialistic religion and his depiction of the Qurʾān as a composition rife with confusion is a well-known topos of Christian anti-Islamic literature such as Ps. al-Kindi, Roger Bacon or Ramon Marti. This paper will discuss the motifs Duran appropriated from Christian anti-Islamic polemic in Bow and Shield as well as their possible sources. It will show that Duran’s polemical method is rooted in the specific cultural milieu of medieval Spain, where all three traditions–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–intermingle and become entangled in the polemical genre.
Title: Speaking as an Ex-Christian: Erroneous Books and Christians' Lies
Abstract: This paper considers post-classical rabbinic use of impersonation in works that resemble in style
the genre of the dialogues Adversus Iudaeos. The Book of Nestor the Priest (Sefer Nestor ha-
Komer, c. 10th cent.), a dialogue between an ex-Christian convert to Judaism, called Nestor, and
an unnamed Christian priest, is the first Jewish anti-Christian systematic attempt to discredit
central Christian tenets such as the trinity, the divinity of Jesus, and the birth of Jesus as Godman
from a virgin. The anonymous author speaks not merely as a newly converted Jew, but also
as an ex-Christian priest with the authority of an inside informant. Throughout this work, Nestor
characterizes Christian literature (primarily the New Testament and other Christian works) as
“erroneous books,” Christians as liars, and Christian teachings as lies. By examining the contexts
within which the author uses the phrase “erroneous books,” and juxtaposing it with similar uses
of this phrase in the Babylonian Talmud with reference to the gospels and the Toledot Yeshu with
reference to Jesus as the author of false books, this paper will examine Jewish categorization of
knowledge and will argue that the anonymous author of the book of Nestor participates in a
Jewish effort to discredit openly the legitimacy of Christian theological knowledge deploying the
same tools as Christian Adversus Iudaeos dialogues authors.
