Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Constructing Medieval Sexuality
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1997) 158-179
Keywords:
Christianity and antisemitism History To 1500
;
Jewish converts from Christianity History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Body image
;
Jews History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Antisemitism History Middle Ages, 500-1500
;
Sex Religious aspects
;
Christianity
Abstract:
In the Middle Ages, sexuality, race, and religion were construed partly in moral terms, as choices, and partly as biological difference, i.e. unchangeable. Jews seemed to Christians to be not only religiously, but also racially and even sexually "Other" (either perverted or hypersexual); thus their "intellectual corruption" was linked with their "bodily corruption." Many medieval proscriptions against the Jews may be attributed to such a stance. The conversion of a Jew to Christianity seemed incomplete, not only because the Jew preserved his hereditary "corrupted" traits, but also because of his "non-Christian" sexual behavior, which he seemed unable to avoid. This stance accounted for the closing off to the convert of sexual life regarded as normal by medieval society and of Christian familial structures. Cites Petrus Alfonsi's "Dialogue, " where the opinion is expressed that a Jew, even one disappointed with Judaism, would embrace Islam rather than Christianity, because of the similar pattern of sexual behavior in the former.
Note:
Including views of the Jew as a sexual, religious and racial "other".
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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