IEA

Fellowship time: October 2009 to June 2010

Research project:
" Ancient Jewish Law in Medieval Christian Thought, c. 1100-c. 1250 "

Abstract:
During the academic year 2009-2010, I will advance my current research on the history of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Christian treatises on the Law of Moses, research that will lead to the publication of a comprehensive study of the ways in which medieval Christian intellectuals conceptualized the Law of Moses and its place in Christianity. That subject is, I think, essential to our understanding of both the history of Christian (or majority) cultural identity in medieval Europe and the history of relations between medieval Christian and Jewish cultures. Recent scholarship on twelfth-century Christian intellectuals and their ideologies of Jews and Judaism has focused on the new wave of anti-Jewish polemical treatises that originated and multiplied in the same period as treatises on the Law. But the polemical treatises, though sometimes sharing elements in common with theoretical treatises on the Law, were mainly written by non-academic intellectuals, and are typically distinct from the academic treatises in form, content, and purpose. Where polemical treatises show a kind of closed discourse in which questions are already answered and the identities of polemicist ("Christianity," "Christians") and object of polemic ("Judaism," "Jews") are rigidly fixed at the outset, treatises on the Law are more likely to be open and exploratory, raising issues that are unresolved for author and audience, revealing fluid conceptions of identity, even when their authors isolate certain manifestations of Christian belief or practice as too "Jewish." Taken as a whole, these treatises on the Law show that discussions about Christianity’s historical relationship to Judaism-and the continuing status, in Christianity, of ancient Jewish law-had an essential place in the formation of Christian self-understanding. Certain treatises also reveal divisive controversies among Christian intellectuals about the original value of the Law in Judaism, and about whether and to what extent it should be maintained in Christianity.

Biographical elements:

Sean Eisen Murphy holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Cornell University (PhD thesis entitled "Judaism in the thought of Peter Abelard", directed by Norman Kretzmann). From 1997 to 2001, he was a lecturer in the History Department and in the program "Christianity and Culture" at the University of Toronto. He is currently Associate Professor (Chair of the Humanities in Medieval Europe) at the department of "Liberal Studies at Western Washington University (Bellingham, Washington, USA). Specialist in European cultural history of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, he examines the relationships between Jewish and Christian cultures in the Middle Ages, and he is more generally interested in how cultural identity is shaped by ideology and religious conflict. He has published articles in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (special issue devoted to Peter Abelard), the Journal of Medieval History, and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Publications:
"Concern about Judaizing in Academic Treatises on the Law, c.1130-c.1230." Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 82:3 (July 2007): 560-594.

"‘The Law was Given for the Sake of Life:’ Peter Abelard on the Law of Moses." American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Special Issue on Peter Abelard, 81:2 (Spring 2007): 271-306.

"The Letter of the Law: Abelard, Moses, and the Problem with Being a Eunuch." Journal of Medieval History 30:2 (June 2004): 161-185.

"Bernard of Clairvaux" and "Joachim of Fiore." In the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10 Volumes. Edward Craig, ed. London: Routledge, 1998.
Papers Presented:
"De cessatione legalium and the Cessation of the Letter" accepted for presentation at Robert Grosseteste: His Thought and Its Impact, 17-19 July 2009, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, U.K.

"The Salvation of Ancient Jews and the Condemnation of Modern Theologians in the 12th Century," International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 7-10 July 2008.

"Fictive Knowledge and Academic Discourse: The Power to Save Ancient Jews and Damn Modern Theologians in the 12th Century," Southern African Society for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 18th Biennial Conference: Knowledge/Power, Mont Fleur, South Africa, 6-9 September 2006.

"Anxiety about ‘Judaizing’ in Academic Treatises on the Law, c.1130-c.1230," International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 12-15 July 2004.

"The Letter of the Law: Abelard, Moses, and the Problem with Being a Eunuch," Canadian Catholic Historical Association/American Catholic Historical Association Joint Spring Meeting, University of Toronto, 6-7 April 2001.

"Hugh of St. Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Peter Abelard on the Necessary Conditions for Salvation before (and just after) the Advent of Christianity," Religion and Society Seminar, University of Toronto, 10 November 1998.

"Rejection of Christ, Rejection of Christianity: Abelard’s Moral Evaluation of Infidelitas," Thirty-Second International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 8-11 May 1997.

"Abelard and Judaism," Thinking Abelard: New Work on the Thought of Peter Abelard, University of California, Los Angeles, 22-23 February 1997.