Mahindra Humanities Center Medieval Studies Seminar

Matilda Bruckner (Boston College) discusses her new book Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Medieval French Literature: Inscribing Biblical Encounters in the Vernacular (Boydell & Brewer, 2025) with Irit Kleiman (Boston University). Reception to follow.

Just as Jews and Christians encountered each other in unequal power relations in the "contact zones" of medieval cities, so the Hebrew Bible met two Christian Testaments in dynamic tension. Vernacular literature mirrored that confrontation whenever it integrated biblical material: quotations and images, translation and paraphrase, people, events or practices. In whatever shape or form, the use of biblical matter introduced vital questions, as Christians and Jews, Judaism and Christianity met each other figuratively around the reinvention of their shared sacred texts to define and dispute their identities. In this compelling study, Matilda Bruckner examines how biblical material entered into a variety of twelfth- and thirteenth- century French works, following the way literal and spiritual meanings were intimately entwined. In examples ranging from the romances of Chrétien de Troyes to bestiaries to theatre and moralized bibles, biblical citation served as an expression of belief, a tool of persuasion, and a weapon of aggression. As current debates on antisemitism intensify, a brief epilogue considers what this study can contribute to Jewish-Christian dialogue when medieval and modern, past and present, challenge each other to deepen knowledge and expand possibilities.