'Nothing in Our Histories': A Postcolonial Perspective on Twelfth-Century Christian Hebraism

Author: Goodwin, Deborah L.

Source: Medieval Encounters, Volume 15, Number 1, 2009 , pp. 35-65(31)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

This essay examines how twelfth-century Christian Hebraism, as an aspect of biblical exegesis, contributed to producing Christian knowledge of the Jewish Other. It argues that Christian Hebraism was symptomatic of strategies central to the formation of Christian identity, a process to which Jews were essential not only as foils, but as collaborators. An alternative approach to Christian Hebraism, its contributions to a volatile Christian identity, and its status as both a cause and an effect of changing relations between Jews and Christians in the period, is demonstrated by the application of postcolonial discourse analysis to the psalms commentary by Herbert of Bosham.

Keywords: CHRISTIAN HEBRAISM; POSTCOLONIAL THEORY; POSTCOLONIAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS; HERBERT OF BOSHAM; MEDIEVAL EXEGESIS; JUDAISM; TWELFTH-CENTURY RENAISSANCE; CHRISTIAN IDENTITY; VICTORINES; HUGH OF SAINT VICTOR

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/138078508X286824

Affiliations: 1: Gustavus Adolphus College

Publication date: 2009-01-01