Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland

A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-521-10991-8
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 509 g

Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland takes issue with historians' common contention that the Catholic Church triumphed in Counter-reformation Poland. In fact, the Church's own sources show that the story is far more complex. From the rise of the Reformation and the rapid dissemination of these new ideas through printing, the Catholic Church was overcome with a strong sense of insecurity. The 'infidel Jews, enemies of Christianity' became symbols of the Church's weakness and, simultaneously, instruments of its defence against all of its other adversaries. This process helped form a Polish identity that led, in the case of Jews, to racial anti-Semitism and to the exclusion of Jews from the category of Poles. This book portrays Jews not only as victims of Church persecution but as active participants in Polish society who as allies of the nobles, placed in positions of power, had more influence than has been recognised.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Teter, Magda

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and acknowledgements; Notes; Abbreviations; Map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; Introduction; 1. 'One Mystical Body … Only One Shepherd': church ideal of spiritual and social hierarchy; 2. The upset social order: Nobles and the Jews in Poland; 3. Heresy and the fleeting 'Triumph of the Counter-Reformation'; 4. 'Bad and cruel Catholics': Christian sins and social intimacies between Jews and Christians; 5. 'A shameful offence': The Nobles and Their Jews; 6. 'Countless Books against common Faith': Catholic insularity and anti-Jewish polemic; 7. 'Warding off heretical depravity': 'Whom does the Catholic church reject, condemn and curse?'; Conclusion: did the Counter Reformation triumph in Poland? Glossary; Abbreviations; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Teter, Magda
Magda Teter is Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University. She is the recipient of the Koret Foundation publication prize and has been published in English, Polish and Hebrew in such journals as Jewish History, AJS Review and Gal-Ed.