Miriam Bodian

Religious intolerance seems to be endemic in human societies. It takes different forms, ranging from subtle discrimination to mass violence. There are times when it is less intense than at others. As a social phenomenon, there seems little chance that it can ever be eliminated. 

But historically, political and legal structures have been developed that have ensured a high degree of freedom for religious minorities. These structures have been built gradually and with great effort. They have very particular roots in early modern Europe (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In this course we will try to understand in historical perspective how this happened, as well as the impact of this development on contemporary thinking. 

To understand the extraordinary struggles of the early modern period, we’ll first have to understand the basic position and practices of the western Church toward heretics and non-believers as they were formulated in the first few centuries CE and as they were elaborated in the medieval period. We will then turn to the events and changed perspectives of the Reformation period. Finally, we will analyze the range of theoretical ideas about religious toleration proposed by European thinkers, and consider their practical implications. We’ll conclude with some reflections on the persistent problems that have arisen and still arise in the effort to achieve religious toleration, including recent issues particular to the multiculturalism experiment. 

The course, then, has a three-part structure:

Part 1: A survey of the late antique and medieval European background;

Part 2: A look at how new conditions in the Reformation period encouraged the emergence of ideas of religious toleration;

Part 3: A study of a variety of theoretical positions – then and (briefly) now.

You will take an exam after the first two segments of the course (together, 50% of the grade), and a final exam (30%). In addition, you will write a 3-5 page exercise (10%), and attendance and participation will be evaluated (10%).

Religious intolerance seems to be endemic in human societies. It takes different forms, ranging from subtle discrimination to mass violence. There are times when it is less intense than at others. As a social phenomenon, there seems little chance that it can ever be eliminated. 

But historically, political and legal structures have been developed that have ensured a high degree of freedom for religious minorities. These structures have been built gradually and with great effort. They have very particular roots in early modern Europe (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In this course we will try to understand in historical perspective how this happened, as well as the impact of this development on contemporary thinking. 

To understand the extraordinary struggles of the early modern period, we’ll first have to understand the basic position and practices of the western Church toward heretics and non-believers as they were formulated in the first few centuries CE and as they were elaborated in the medieval period. We will then turn to the events and changed perspectives of the Reformation period. Finally, we will analyze the range of theoretical ideas about religious toleration proposed by European thinkers, and consider their practical implications. We’ll conclude with some reflections on the persistent problems that have arisen and still arise in the effort to achieve religious toleration, including recent issues particular to the multiculturalism experiment. 

The course, then, has a three-part structure:

Part 1: A survey of the late antique and medieval European background;

Part 2: A look at how new conditions in the Reformation period encouraged the emergence of ideas of religious toleration;

Part 3: A study of a variety of theoretical positions – then and (briefly) now.

You will take an exam after the first two segments of the course (together, 50% of the grade), and a final exam (30%). In addition, you will write a 3-5 page exercise (10%), and attendance and participation will be evaluated (10%).

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization. It begins with a brief discussion of Jewish history from earliest times, but focuses on the period from Spain’s Expulsion of the Jews in 1492 to the present. We will examine the major movements of Jews within an expanding diaspora, the impact of the Reformation, the changing attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority in Jewish communities and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations over time, in a variety of historical contexts.

Texts:

Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. 

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Grading:

Two quizzes (20%), first mid-term (20%), second mid-term (20%), final exam (40%).

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Church and the Jews over two thousand years. It will analyze Christian ideas and policies regarding Jews as expressed in both elite and popular culture. We’ll examine various sources, including theological texts, canon law, church art, and popular preaching. We’ll consider how the Church’s powerful anti-Jewish teachings provided a basis for restrictive legislation and violence against Jews, even if Church authorities sometimes acted to protect Jewish communities. The course emphasize the factors that led to striking changes in attitudes and policies over time, with emphasis on how the theological legacy was adapted in the face of changing realities. It will examine the consequences of the Protestant Reformation and conclude with a look at the radical shift in the perspective of the Catholic Church in the 1960s, with the documents issued by Vatican II.

TEXTS:

• Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition)
• The course will make used of a website designed specifically for it by the instructor. The website includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Canvas.

GRADING:

• Class attendance and participation (10%)
• participation on Discussion Board (20%)
• two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%)
• mid-term exam (20%)
• final exam (30%)

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization. It begins with a brief discussion of Jewish history from earliest times, but focuses on the period from Spain’s Expulsion of the Jews in 1492 to the present. We will examine the major movements of Jews within an expanding diaspora, the impact of the Reformation, the changing attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority in Jewish communities and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations over time, in a variety of historical contexts.

Texts:
Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. 

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Grading:
Two quizzes (20%), first mid-term (20%), second mid-term (20%), final exam (40%).

This course deals with the long and difficult process by which a principle of freedom of conscience emerged in early modern Europe – a principle that is still contested in many parts of the world. In late medieval Europe, such an idea was unimaginable. Over many centuries the Church had exercised authority in matters of belief, and the Church’s power was embedded in the social fabric in myriad ways. The Reformation of the sixteenth century shattered not only the unity of the Church, but perceptions of its authority and of the bonds of community. Yet it was by no means obvious to anyone that a person should be free to believe what seemed true to him or her.

In this course we will travel back in time to Reformation Europe during the bitter religious wars between Catholic and Protestant powers. In the wake of these wars (and other episodes of religious violence), pragmatic ideas about how to keep civil peace emerged. So did new ideas about freedom of individual conscience. Why were such ideas so threatening? Why did they seem to so many people downright immoral? How did a psychological and intellectual shift take place that allowed ordinary people (as well as brilliant thinkers) to change their minds and come to support freedom of conscience? To answer these questions we will examine important episodes like the Dutch Revolt against Spain, the Inquisition trial of Galileo, and the English Civil War; we will read from works by authors who struggled to envision a society without religious controls; and we will examine the underground world of “forbidden best-sellers” and popular ideas about freedom of religion.

Each of you will choose a historical figure from a list provided by me. (You may also choose a figure not on the list, in consultation with me.)  You will read more deeply about this person and represent his or her opinions in mock debates we will stage in class. Your grade will be based on the following: 10% attendance and participation, 20% a review of a book on your “person,” 20% blog participation, 30% a paper on a topic related to your “person,” 20% final exam.

Suggested to buy (all can be obtained cheaply online as used books):

Joseph Perez, The Spanish Inquisition

Benjamin Kaplan, Divided by Faith

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization. It begins with a brief discussion of Jewish history from earliest times, but focuses on the period from Spain’s Expulsion of the Jews in 1492 to the present. We will examine the major movements of Jews within an expanding diaspora, the impact of the Reformation, the changing attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority in Jewish communities and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations over time, in a variety of historical contexts.

Texts:
Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. 



Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Grading:

Two quizzes (20%), first mid-term (20%), second mid-term (20%), final exam (40%).

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Church and the Jews over two millenia. It will analyze ideas and policies regarding Jews as expressed in both elite and popular culture, from theology and canon law to church art and popular preaching. It will also survey the factors which led to striking changes in attitudes and policies over time, with emphasis on the interplay of the theological legacy and evolving realities.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition)

The course will make used of a website designed specifically for it by the instructor. The website includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Blackboard.

Class attendance and participation (10%), participation on Discussion Board (20%), two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%), mid-term exam (20%), final exam (30%).

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization, and deals with the period from the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 to the present. It will cover major demographic shifts, the impact of the Reformation, the emergence of new attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a modern economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations as new historical contexts took shape.

Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present.

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.



First mid-term (20%), second mid-term (20%), two quizzes (10% each), final exam (40%)

This course deals with the long and difficult process by which a principle of freedom of conscience emerged in early modern Europe – a principle that is still contested in many parts of the world. In late medieval Europe, such an idea was unimaginable. Over many centuries the Church had exercised authority in matters of belief, and the Church’s power was embedded in the social fabric in myriad ways. The Reformation of the sixteenth century shattered not only the unity of the Church, but perceptions of its authority and of the bonds of community. Yet it was by no means obvious to anyone that a person should be free to believe what seemed true to him or her.

In this course we will travel back in time to Reformation Europe during the bitter religious wars between Catholic and Protestant powers. In the wake of these wars (and other episodes of religious violence), pragmatic ideas about how to keep civil peace emerged. So did new ideas about freedom of individual conscience. Why were such ideas so threatening? Why did they seem to so many people downright immoral? How did a psychological and intellectual shift take place that allowed ordinary people (as well as brilliant thinkers) to change their minds and come to support freedom of conscience? To answer these questions we will examine important episodes like the Dutch Revolt against Spain, the Inquisition trial of Galileo, and the English Civil War; we will read from works by authors who struggled to envision a society without religious controls; and we will examine the underground world of “forbidden best-sellers” and popular ideas about freedom of religion.

Each of you will choose a historical figure from a list provided by me. (You may also choose a figure not on the list, in consultation with me.)  You will read more deeply about this person and represent his or her opinions in mock debates we will stage in class. Your grade will be based on the following: 10% attendance and participation, 20% a review of a book on your “person,” 20% blog participation, 30% a paper on a topic related to your “person,” 20% final exam.

Suggested to buy (they can all be obtained cheaply online as used books):

Joseph Perez, The Spanish Inquisition

Benjamin Kaplan, Divided by Faith

Readings marked with a * will be done by only one or two of you; you will discuss the reading in class.

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization, and deals with the period from the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 to the present. It will give students a grasp of major demographic shifts, the impact of the Reformation, the emergence of new attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations as new historical contexts took shape.

Texts:

Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present. ??Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.?

Grading:

First mid-term (25%), second mid-term (25%), final exam (50%).

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Western Church and the Jews over two millenia. It will analyze ideas and policies regarding Jews as expressed in both elite and popular culture, from theology and canon law to church art and popular preaching. It will also survey the factors which led to striking changes in attitudes and policies over time, with emphasis on the interplay of the theological legacy and evolving realities.?

Texts:

Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition). This is available online if you don’t wish to purchase it.??The course will make used of a website designed specifically for it by the instructor. The website includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Canvas.

Grading:

Class attendance and participation (10%), participation on Discussion Board (20%), two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%), mid-term exam (20%), final exam (30%).

The Spanish Inquisition operated for three and a half centuries, and became one of the most notorious institutions in history. It is popularly known for its secret trials, autos-da-fe, and burnings at the stake. But why was it established? Why did it survive even when heresy seemed virtually eliminated? What purposes did it serve that allowed it to survive for so long? These are some of the issues we will explore in this course. Each student will carry out a project “tracing” one (fictitious) personality through the various phases of the inquisitorial process, from the time of arrest (or re-arrest) to the day of the sentencing. By discussing one another’s projects we will get a sense of the great diversity - in time and space, and in motives and aims - of this institution.

Texts:

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision

Lu Ann Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614

Grading:

Attendance and participation (20%), project proposal (20%), draft of project (20%). Final project (40%).

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization, from the Second Temple period (c. 500 BCE) to the present. In broad strokes, the sequence will give students a conception of a Jewish culture and history that has preserved important continuities, but has also undergone transformations as its bearers migrated, encountered other cultures, and adapted to changing circumstances.

This segment of the two-semester sequence, which can be taken independently of the first, will deal with the period from 1492 (the year of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain) to the present. It will give students a grasp of major demographic shifts, the impact of the Reformation, the emergence of new attitudes to Jews, the breakdown of traditional authority and the trend toward secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah (a form of mysticism), the entry of Jews into a capitalist economy, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, Zionism, Jews in the Muslim world, the rise American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The thematic core of the course will be the concepts of exile and return – their various meanings and interpretations as new historical contexts took shape.

Texts:

• Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present.
• Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Grading:

• First mid-term (25%)
• Second mid-term (25%)
• Final exam (50%)

Religious intolerance seems to be endemic in human societies. It takes different forms, ranging from subtle discrimination to mass violence. There are times when it is less intense than at others. As a social phenomenon, there seems little chance that it can ever be eliminated.

But historically, political and legal structures have been developed that have ensured a high degree of freedom for religious minorities. These structures have been built gradually and with great effort. They have very particular roots in early modern Europe (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In this course we will try to understand in historical perspective how this happened, as well as the impact of this development on contemporary thinking.

To understand the extraordinary struggles of the early modern period, we’ll first have to understand the basic position and practices of the western Church toward heretics and non-believers as they were formulated in the first few centuries CE and as they were elaborated in the medieval period. We will then turn to the events and changed perspectives of the Reformation period. Finally, we will analyze the range of theoretical ideas about religious toleration proposed by European thinkers, and consider their practical implications. We’ll conclude with some reflections on the persistent problems that have arisen and still arise in the effort to achieve religious toleration, including recent issues particular to the multiculturalism experiment.

The course, then, has a three-part structure:

Part 1: A survey of the late antique and medieval European background;

Part 2: A look at how new conditions in the Reformation period encouraged the emergence of ideas of religious toleration;

Part 3: A study of a variety of theoretical positions – then and (briefly) now.

Grading:

You will take an exam after the first two segments of the course (together, 50% of the grade), and a final exam (30%). In addition, you will write a 3-5 page exercise (10%), and attendance and participation will be evaluated (10%).

Course Overview: In this course, we examine the central cultural characteristics of the Western heritage after the Reformation and discuss their transformation up to the present. A chronological narrative of the history in question will be provided by the lecturer and the textbook, but the most significant portion of our time together will be devoted to the examination of a number of central questions within western society since the Reformation. We will attempt to formulate an understanding of “western civilization” and its central concerns and transformations, with a particular attention paid to economy and politics in their relationships to culture and freedom. We will discuss such issues as the construction of political authority and its relationship to emerging conceptions of political liberty, revolution, popular sovereignty, and political economy. We will examine and explain the emergence of the central characteristics of modern Western society, including mass society, democracy, colonialism, secularism, political sovereignty, and the nation-state. Focus in the course is away from memorization of factual information about European history and toward reading, discussion, interpretation and criticism of texts that exemplify certain moments in the western tradition. By reading, discussing, analyzing and criticizing these sources, students will receive an introduction to the tasks involved in “thinking like a historian.”

Prerequisites:  Students taking this course are assumed to be capable of an informed, critical stance toward the claims of the lecturer. No previous knowledge of the subject matter is assumed.

Possible Texts:

Mark Kishlansky et al., Civilization in the West, vol. 2

Jean Calvin, Golden Book of the True Christian Life

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (selections)

Émile Zola, The Ladies’ Paradise

Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel

J. M. Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire / Economic Consequences of the Peace (selections)

Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (selections)

Additional readings will be distributed in class or are available on the Internet

Assignments & Grading:

Compliance with syllabus policy 0%

Compliance with attendance policy 0%

Paper 1 @ 15%

Paper 2 @ 25%

Final paper @ 30%

Average of regular quizzes @ 30% each (I will drop your two lowest scores)

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Western Church and the Jews over the course of two millenia. We will analyze ideas about Jews as they were expressed in both elite and popular culture, from theological works and canon law to church art and popular preaching. We will especially try to understand how changing conditions of life in the Christian West gave rise to striking changes in attitudes and policies toward Jews - changes whose justification required a rethinking of Christian theology.

Required to purchase:Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition)We will make use of a website designed specifically for this course by the instructor. The website will be distributed in CD-Rom form. It includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Blackboard.

Grading:Class attendance and participation (10%), two unannounced quizes (20%), two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%), mid-term exam (20%), final exam (30%). Plus and minus grades will be used.

This course deals with Jewish civilization in the period from 1492 (the year of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain) to the present. It will give students a grasp of major trends and episodes in Jewish history in this period, including the rise of eastern European Jewry, Hassidism, emancipation, modern antisemitism, nineteenth-century Jewish nationalism, the development of American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Required texts:

Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present.

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Assignments and grading:

Participation (10%), two quizzes (10%), mid-term (30%), final exam (50%).

This course (a reading course) will examine how religious strife sparked by the Reformation led to the transformation of European perceptions of religious “others,” and brought about the creation of new political structures to achieve civil peace. While the emergence of toleration is usually associated primarily with the Netherlands, England, and France, this course will examine developments in the Spanish and Portuguese empires and Italy as well. (Emphases will be determined somewhat by the individual interests of students). Introductory issues will include: Christian doctrines and policies regarding heretics and Jews in medieval Europe; late medieval state, papacy, and inquisition; popular religious violence in medieval Europe; and the breakdown of western Christian unity. We will then examine some significant older works along with more recent studies on such issues as temporary pragmatic “solutions” to religious violence in France and Germany; the changing discourse of “conscience” among Protestants and Catholics; “private” worship and public connivance; print, censorship, and clandestine literature; humanist irenicism; the education of princes and reason of state; social contract theory; and shifting popular attitudes.

Texts:

Edward Peters, Inquisition

David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence

R. Po-Chia Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation

Jon Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe

Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross

Benjamin Kaplan, Divided by Faith

Braun and Vallance, eds., Contexts of Conscience in Early Modern Europe

Martin Austin Nesvig, Ideology and Inquisition

Eric Nelson, The Hebrew Republic

Willem Frijhoff, Embodied Belief

Stuart Schwartz, All Can be Saved

Grading:

Grades based on weekly analyses of readings (30%), a draft of a historiographical essay (20%), historiographical essay (40%), participation (10%).

From the sixteenth century onward, western nations developed at a sometimes astounding pace, economically, politically, and culturally. In this course we’ll examine the major shifts and innovations that we associate with the modern western world. The idea of “the world” itself changed: with the discovery of new lands and their colonization, western civilization spread from its European center to many other parts of the world, with fateful consequences. By the late twentieth century, emerging technologies in the western orbit contributed to producing what we call “globalization” and, more broadly, the world we inhabit today. 

The required textbook for this course is:

Western Civilizations, eds. Judith Coffin et al, 17th edition, Volume 2. It should be available for purchase at the Co-op. Purchase this edition only.

Grades will be based on the following: Four quizzes (40%), participation (10%), Mid-term (20%), Final (30%).

SPINOZA’S WORLD: POWER AND BELIEF IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

HIS 350L (honors), LAH 350

Benedict Spinoza, whose work has shaped modern thinking about politics and religion, lived in a period of deep crisis in European history. In his own life Spinoza experienced the effects of persecution and repression in different ways: His parents fled the Spanish Inquisition; he himself was banned as a “heretic” from the Jewish community of Amsterdam where his family had found refuge; and fear of censorship meant that his most important work was published either anonymously or after his death. In this course, we’ll examine how radical new ideas about freedom and civil peace emerged out of the suffering and turmoil of this period, among ordinary people as well as among brilliant thinkers like Spinoza. We will examine such episodes as the Dutch Revolt against Spain, the Inquisition trial of Galileo, and the English Civil War; we will examine the underground world of “forbidden best-sellers” and popular ideas about freedom of religion and republican government.

Requirements

We will try to bring some of the conflicts in Spinoza’s environment to life with role-playing exercises in class. Students will write three 5-6 page essays in preparation for these exercises (together, 60% of the grade). In addition, they will write a 5-page essay on a topic, related to the course, of their choosing (30%). Attendance and participation will be evaluated (10%). Plus/minus grades will be assigned.

Readings will include excerpts from:

Edward Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe.

Lu Ann Homza, Religious Authority in the Spanish Renaissance.

Joseph Perez, The Inquisition in Spain.

Miriam Bodian, Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation.

Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza.

Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus.

Herbert Rowen, Johann de Witt.

Richard Popkin, History of Skepticism from Erasmus to Descartes.

This is the second half of a two-semester survey of Jewish civilization, from the Second Temple period (c. 500 BCE) to the present. In broad strokes, the sequence will give students a conception of a culture and history that has preserved certain continuities, but has also undergone great transformations as Jews have migrated, encountered other cultures, and adapted to changing circumstances. 

This segment of the two-semester sequence, which can be taken independently of the first, deals with Jewish civilization in the period from 1492 (the year of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain) to the present. It will give students a grasp of major Jewish migrations in this period, the impact of the Reformation on Jewish life, the emergence of new attitudes to Jews in early modern Europe, the breakdown of traditional authority, and the impact of secularization. It will deal with the following transformative events: the rise of eastern European Jewry, the spread of kabbalah, Hassidism, Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), emancipation, modern antisemitism, nineteenth-century Jewish nationalism, Jews in the Muslim world, the development of American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Throughout the medieval period, religious conformity was enforced by religious authorities in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies alike, though with differing degrees of coercion. But in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, a fundamental revision of thinking about religious difference began to take root. This course will examine how think about freedom of conscience and religion crystallized in western and central Europe, both as a pragmatic practice and as a matter of principle. We will consider the following questions: What were the psychological and theological obstacles to accepting the practice of toleration, and why were they so powerful (as they still are in some societies)? What social conditions and patterns of thinking led to the emergence of a principle of toleration? How did this principle become embedded in western legal systems? And how did quite different models of religious toleration emerge in different places?

Grading

Three exams (together, 60% of the grade),

Three 3-5 page exercises (together, 30% of the grade).

Attendance and participation will account for 10% of the grade.

Texts (subject to change)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, in Edward Peters, ed., Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, 182-3.3.   

Bernard Gui, Heresies of the High Middle Ages

Judaism.Ruether, Rosemary Ruether, "The Adversus Judaeos Tradition in the Church Fathers" in Jeremy Cohen, ed., Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict

Lester Little, “The Jews in Christian Europe,” in Jeremy Cohen, ed., Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict

R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society

R. Po-Chia Hsia, from “Introduction” to Hsia, ed., A Companion to the Reformation World, xii-xv.11.

Bagchi and Steinmetz, eds., Reformation Theology

Bob Scribner, “Heterodoxy, literacy and print in the early German Reformation,”in Biller and Hudson, eds., Heresy and Literacy

Carlo Ginzburg, “The High and the Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method

Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic

Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment

Judith Pollmann, “The Bond of Christian Piety: The Individual Practice ofTolerance in the Dutch Republic,” in Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age

Miriam Bodian, “Jews in a Divided Christendom,” Blackwell Companion to the Reformation.26.   

Sebastian Castellio.Castellio, excerpts from Counsel to France in her distress (1562)

Michel de Montaigne.From Apology for Raymond Sebond (1580)

Jean Bodin, Colloquium of the Seven about Secrets of the Sublime (1588)

Dirck Volckertsz, Coornhert Synod on the Freedom of Conscience (1582)

Benedict Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670)

John Locke, From A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)

Voltaire, “On Toleration in Connection with the Death of Jean Calas” (1763)

Christian Wilhelm Dohm, “On the Civil Improvement of the Jews” (1781)

Michael Walzer, On Toleration

The Spanish Inquisition operated for three and a half centuries, and became one of the most notorious institutions in history. It is popularly known for its secret trials, autos-da-fe, and burnings at the stake. But why was it established? Why did it survive even when heresy seemed virtually eliminated? What purposes did it serve that allowed it to survive for so long? These are some of the issues we will explore in this course. Each student will carry out a project “tracing” one (fictitious) personality through the various phases of the inquisitorial process, from the time of arrest (or re-arrest) to the day of the sentencing. By discussing one another’s projects we will get a sense of the great diversity - in time and space, and in motives and aims - of this institution. 

Required books:

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision

Lu Ann Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614

Grading:

Attendance and participation (20%), project proposal (20%), draft of project (20%). Final project (40%).

This course will examine the complex relationship between the Western Church and the Jews over two millenia. How did theological ideas about the Jews crystallize in the early centuries? How were they expressed in legal and social terms in the centuries that followed? How did economic and social realities dovetail with theology to produce the extreme persecutions of the Jews in the late medieval period? What led to the striking changes in Christian attitudes to Jews in from the post-Reformation period to the present? We will analyze relevant documents and images, emphasizing how theological positions both created and responded to the socio-economic roles of Jews.

Required to purchase:

Revised Standard Version of the Bible (any edition)

The course will make used of a website designed specifically for it by the instructor. The website includes many of the readings. Other assigned readings will be posted on Blackboard.

Grading:

Class attendance and participation (10%), participation on Discussion Board (20%), two 1-3 pp. assignments (20%), mid-term exam (20%), final exam (30%).

This half of a two-semester sequence, which can be taken independently, will survey Jewish civilization from 1492 (the year of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain) to the present. It will give students a grasp of major migrations and spiritual trends, the breakdown of traditional authority, emancipation, modern antisemitism, the rise of American Jewry, the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Texts

Eli Barnavi, A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People: From the Time of the Patriarchs to the Present.

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History.

Memoirs of Glueckel of Hameln.

Grading

Attendance and class participation, 10%; 3-5 page paper 10%; mid-term 30%; final exam 50%.

The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions operated for three and a half centuries, and became one of the most notorious institutions in history. Spain had a number of tribunals on Spanish soil, but also in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena. The Portuguese had tribunals in Lisbon, Evora, and Coimbra, but also in Goa, and it was active in Brazil. It was thus an institution that expanded with the expansion of empire. This course will explore the reasons for the establishment of these inquisitions, their medieval legal foundations, their operation, the background to their overseas expansion, and the many functions they served for both church and state. It will particularly examine the way the two inquisitions approached different populations (converted Muslims, converted Jews, “Old Christians,” indigenous Americans, Africans, etc.).

Grading

Attendance and participation in discussion: 25%; the final research paper: 75%.  

Texts

Gillian Algren, ed. The Inquisition of Francisca: A Sixteenth-Century Visionary on Trial

Francisco Bethencourt, The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478-1834

Miriam Bodian, Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in Iberian Lands

Mary Giles, ed. Women in the Inquisition: Spain and the New World

Sara Nalle, Mad for God: Bartolomé Sanchez, the Secret Messiah of Cardenete

Edward Peters, Inquisition

THE SPANISH INQUISITION
HIS350L, JS364, RS357. Unique Number  39290.

Prof. Miriam Bodian
Fall, 2010
Tues., Thurs. Mez. 2.102, 2:00-3:30 pm

The Spanish Inquisition operated for three and a half centuries, and became one of the most notorious institutions in history. It is popularly known for its secret trials, its autos-da-fe and burnings at the stake, and its fanatical inquisitors. But why was it established? Why did it survive even when heresy seemed virtually eliminated? What purposes did it serve that allowed it to survive for so long? These are some of the issues we will explore in this course. Each student will carry out a project “tracing” one (fictitious) personality through the various phases of the inquisitorial process, from the time of arrest (or re-arrest) to the day of the sentencing. By discussing one another’s projects we will get a sense of the great diversity - in time and space, and in motives and aims - of this institution and the people who came in contact with it.

This is a writing course, and at every stage we will have objectives in mind that bear on the final writing project.  

Books to purchase:

Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision

Lu Ann Homza, The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614

Lectures and Readings:

1)  Aug. 26 – Introduction. The medieval inquisition and the attack on heresy: a “totalitarian” society?

Homza, pp. ix-xv.

2)  Aug. 31, Sept. 2 - The Spanish Inquisition – Why was it established?

Homza, 1-8.

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Chs. 1-2.

3)  Sept.7, 14, 16 - How did the Inquisition operate?

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Chs. 7-9.

Homza, 221-231, 257-266.

4)  Sept. 21, 23, 28 – Is the Inquisition’s reputation for corruption and abuse justified?  

Homza, 50-60.

Film: “O Judeu.”

5) Sept. 30- Oct. 4 – “Purity of Blood” and the Inquisition: A racist institution?

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Ch. 11.

6)  Oct. 7, 12 - Resisting the Inquisition

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Chs. 3-4.

Miriam Bodian, Dying in the Law of Moses, Ch. 5 (E-Reserves online).

7)    Oct. 14 – MID-TERM EXAM

8)    Oct. 19, 21 - New targets: alumbrados, “luteranos,” and witches

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Ch. 5.

Homza, 80-92; 153-163.

9)    Oct. 26 – New targets: moriscos

Kamen, Ch. 10.

Kamen and Dyer, eds., Inquisitorial Inquiries, 119-143. (E-Reserves online).

10) Oct. 28, Nov. 2 – Counter-Reformation Social Control

Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, Ch. 6, 12.

Sara Nalle, Crazy for God, Ch. 1 (E-Reserves online).

Homza, 216-220

11)  Nov. 4 – Submission of drafts of final papers and their distribution for peer review.

12)  Nov. 9 - The Enlightenment Critique of the Inquisition

              Source: From Voltaire, Candide, Ch. 4 (link on E-Reserves).

13)  Nov. 11, 16 - Decline and Abolition of the Inquisition

Edward Peters, Inquisition, pp. 99-104 (E-Reserves online).

14)  Nov. 18, 23, 30 – Student presentations of projects.

15)  Dec. 2 – Review and conclusions.

REQUIREMENTS

The grade components are as follows: class participation (10% of grade), midterm exam (20% of grade), two 3-5 page papers (20% of grade), a draft of a paper of about 20 pages (20% of grade), and a final paper (30%)..

The research project will involve the following. Each student will choose early in the semester, from a list of fictitious victims of the Inquisition, one “victim,” whose name, date of birth, place of residence, year of arrest, sentence, and date of sentencing will be provided. It will be the student’s task to create a history of this person’s involvement with the Inquisition, on the basis of material learned in class as well as outside reading. Your “historical” account must first and foremost be plausible, for example, in details of the arrest and interrogations. (This is not simple!) But are also encouraged to use your imagination. A number of books will be placed on reserve in the library for use in this project.

One aspect of the class will be peer review of each other’s work. You will be given detailed guidelines for this. This is intended to enhance your appreciation of critical thinking, good writing, and healthy collaboration.

All students are expected to abide by university standards of honesty and integrity. Assignments turned in after the deadline will be penalized by half a grade per day, except in unusual situations. The use of cell phones in class is not permitted, and any use of computers should be strictly for note-taking.

Professor Miriam Bodian

Garrison 2:104a

bodian@mail.utexas.edu

This course contains a Writing Flag.

Please check back for updates.

Religious intolerance seems to be endemic in human societies. It takes different forms, ranging from subtle discrimination to mass violence. There are times when it is less intense than at others. At least as a social phenomenon, there is little chance that it will ever be eliminated.

But history shows that political and legal structures can ensure a high degree of religious freedom. These structures have been built gradually and with great effort. They have very particular roots. That is, at a certain moment in history, and in a certain geographical context, principles of religious toleration - principles that could be translated into permanent political and legal protections - were worked out. This was a momentous innovation, one that took place in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. In this course we will try to understand in historical perspective how this happened. It is a story about events in the powerful states that emerged in the Christian West in this period.

To understand the extraordinary struggles of this period, we’ll first have to understand  the basic position and practices of the western Church toward heretics and non-believers as they were formulated in the first few centuries of the Common Era and as they were elaborated in the Middle Ages. We will then turn to the events and changed perspectives of the Reformation period. Finally, we will look at the range of theoretical ideas about religious toleration proposed by European thinkers, and consider their practical implications. We’ll conclude with some reflections on the persistent problems that have arisen and still arise in the the effort to achieve religious toleration, including recent issues particular to the multiculturalism experiment.

The course, then, has a three-part structure:

Part 1: A survey of the medieval European background;
Part 2: A look at how new conditions in the Reformation period encouraged the emergence of ideas of religious toleration;
Part 3: A study of the variety of theoretical positions – then and (briefly) now.

You will take an exam after each segment of the course (together, 60% of the grade), and write a 3-5 page exercise for each of them (together, 30% of the grade). Attendance and participation will account for 10% of the grade. Plus/minus grades will be assigned, as mandated by the new policy.

1.    August 26 – What do we mean by religious freedom – or do we know what we mean?

PART 1

2.    August 28 – In the beginning there was theology (1): Christian doctrine concerning heresy.

From the article in The Catholic Encyclopedia on “heresy.”

From Thomas Aquinas, on the question of whether heresy should be tolerated, from his Summa Theologica, in Edward Peters, ed., Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, 182-3.

3.    August 31 – The medieval Inquisition and the suppression of heresy.

From Bernard Gui on heresy, in Wakefield and Evans, eds., Heresies of the High Middle Ages, 1000-1530, 373-378, 386-404.

4.    September 2 - In the beginning there was theology (2): Christian doctrine concerning Judaism.

Ruether, Rosemary Ruether, "The Adversus Judaeos Tradition in the Church Fathers" in Jeremy Cohen, ed., Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict, 174-189.

5.    September 4 – Discrimination and violence against Jews.

Lester Little, “The Jews in Christian Europe,” in Jeremy Cohen, ed., Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict, 276-297.

SEPTEMBER 7 – NO CLASS: LABOR DAY

6.    September 9 – The papacy, the state, and late medieval persecution.

R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society, 1-45.

7.    September 11 – REVIEW.

8.    September 13 – EXAM.

PART 2

9.    September 16 – Early modern skepticism about the knowability of truth.

The “Story of the Three Rings” from the Decameron: Decameron, Day 1, Novel 3: online at
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/decameronNew/DecShowText.php?myID=nov0103&expand=day01&lang=eng

10.    September 18 –  -  The Reformation: the breakdown of western Christian unity.

R. Po-Chia Hsia, from “Introduction” to Hsia, ed., A Companion to the Reformation World, xii-xv.

11.    September 21 - The Reformation: the attack on the authority of the western Church.

Bagchi and Steinmetz, eds., Reformation Theology, 42-49.

12.     September 23 - The idea of multiple paths to religious truth. From the Catholic irenicism of Erasmus to the idea of natural religion.

Erasmus, from The Complaint of Peace (1521).

13.     September 25 – The Reformation: religious wars and their fallout. Temporary pragmatic solutions: Peace of Augsburg, Union of Utrecht, Edict of Nantes.

Mout, “Limits and Debates: A Comparative View of Dutch Toleration in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” in The Emergence of Tolerance in the Dutch Republic, 37-47.

14.    September 28 – TBA.

15.    September 30 - The impact of print in the Reformation period...

Bob Scribner, “Heterodoxy, literacy and print in the early German Reformation,”
in Biller and Hudson, eds., Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530, 255-278.

16.    October 2 – …and of censorship.

Carlo Ginzburg, “The High and the Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, 60-76.

17.    October 5 - – “Disenchantment.”

Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, 51-77.

18.    October 7 –  The impact of the discovery of new peoples. Anthropological speculation. The status of the “new” pagans.

The Travels of Fernando Mendes Pinto, 87-89.

19.    October 9 – State-building ideologies. Raison d’état, mercantilism, and toleration.

http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Overview:_Mercantilism

Menasseh ben Israel’s letter to Oliver Cromwell.

20.    October 12 –  The emergence of a non-clerical intelligentsia.

Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 1-22.

21.    October 14 – Habituation: The everyday practice of religious toleration.

Judith Pollmann, “The Bond of Christian Piety: The Individual Practice of
Tolerance in the Dutch Republic,” in Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age, 53-71.

22.     Octobor 16 – REVIEW

23.     October 19 – EXAM

PART 3

24.    October 21 –  Images of Cruelty, from John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments

http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/53_garnesey.html

http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/39_ridleylatimer.html

25.    October 23 –  Shifting attitudes about Jews in Reformation Europe.

Miriam Bodian, “Jews in a Divided Christendom,” Blackwell Companion to the Reformation.

26.    October 26 - Sebastian Castellio.

Castellio, excerpts from Counsel to France in her distress (1562).

27.    October 28 – Michel de Montaigne.

From Apology for Raymond Sebond (1580), tr. Ariew and Grene, passages on pp.127-8, 131-136, 139-141, 146-147, 152.

28.    October 30 – Jean Bodin

Colloquium of the Seven about Secrets of the Sublime (1588), 150-159.

29.    November 2 –  Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert

Synod on the Freedom of Conscience (1582), 151-162.

30.    November 2 – Benedict Spinoza

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), Chapter 20.

31.    November 4 – Benedict Spinoza

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (continued).

32.    November 6 – John Locke

From A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689).

33.    November 9 – John Locke

A Letter Concerning Toleration (continued).

34.    November 11 – The Calas Affair

From Voltaire, “On Toleration in Connection with the Death of Jean Calas” (1763).

35.    November 13 – Dohm on the Status of Jews

From Christian Wilhelm Dohm, “On the Civil Improvement of the Jews” (1781).

36.    November 16 – The French Revolutionary Period and the Status of Jews

From the debate on the Status of the Jews in the French National Assembly.

Napoleon and the Assembly of Notables.

37.    November 18 – The American Experiment

Jefferson’s draft of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

38.    November 20 – Religious Toleration in Historical and Cultural Context

Michael Walzer, On Toleration, 2-13.

39.    November 23 – Religious Toleration in Context (continued).

Walzer, On Toleration, 14-36.

40.    November 25 – Walzer, On Toleration, 66-82.

November 27 – No class – Thanksgiving holiday

41.    November 30 – Walzer, On Toleration, 83-112.

42.    December 2 – REVIEW

43.    December 4 –FINAL EXAM

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.