{"product_id":"conversion-and-narrative-reading-and-religious-authority-in-medieval-polemic-9780812244717","title":"Conversion and Narrative: Reading and Religious Authority in Medieval Polemic","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1322, a Jewish doctor named Abner entered a synagogue in the Castilian city of Burgos and began to weep in prayer. Falling asleep, he dreamed of a great man who urged him to awaken from his slumber. Shortly thereafter, he converted to Christianity and wrote a number of works attacking his old faith. Abner tells the story in fantastic detail in the opening to his Hebrew-language but anti-Jewish polemical treatise, \u003ci\u003eTeacher of Righteousness\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the religiously plural context of the medieval Western Mediterranean, religious conversion played an important role as a marker of social boundaries and individual identity. The writers of medieval religious polemics such as \u003ci\u003eTeacher of Righteousness\u003c\/i\u003e often began by giving a brief, first-person account of the rejection of their old faith and their embrace of the new. In such accounts, Ryan Szpiech argues, the narrative form plays an important role in dramatizing the transition from infidelity to faith. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSzpiech draws on a wide body of sources from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim polemics to investigate the place of narrative in the representation of conversion. Making a firm distinction between stories told about conversion and the experience of religious change, his book is not a history of conversion itself but a comparative study of how and why it was presented in narrative form within the context of religious disputation. He argues that between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, conversion narratives were needed to represent communal notions of history and authority in allegorical, dramatic terms. After considering the late antique paradigms on which medieval Christian conversion narratives were based, Szpiech juxtaposes Christian stories with contemporary accounts of conversion to Islam and Judaism. He emphasizes that polemical conflict between Abrahamic religions in the medieval Mediterranean centered on competing visions of history and salvation. By seeing conversion not as an individual experience but as a public narrative, \u003ci\u003eConversion and Narrative\u003c\/i\u003e provides a new, interdisciplinary perspective on medieval writing about religious disputes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ryan Szpiech\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pennsylvania Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/06\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 328\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.20w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812244717\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRyan Szpiech teaches Spanish literature and Jewish studies at the University of Michigan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":40890435371123,"sku":"9.78081E+12","price":91.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_b57f4f14-1b7c-47f7-8bbd-045e6099f053.jpg?v=1689772479","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/en-de\/products\/conversion-and-narrative-reading-and-religious-authority-in-medieval-polemic-9780812244717","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}