2021/05/20 by Guy G. Stroumsa · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity #Jewish Identity and Society
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780192898685.003.0004
openalex publication_date 2021/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract The awareness of the proximity of Judaism and Islam to Christianity was nearly lost in the secularization process. Christian affinities with Judaism and Islam ceased to be a matter of evidence, immediately recognizable. More and more, literati started perceiving Christianity as a (or rather the) European religion, while its Near Eastern roots were trimmed far back, or even, in some cases, pulled up entirely. In German-speaking lands, in particular, the Romantic movement and the “discovery” of Sanskrit brought to the perception of “Indo-Europeans,” or Aryans and Semite peoples, throughout history, in contradistinction and opposition to one another. Within a climate of growing racist anti-Semitism, Jewish scholars started to develop modern scholarship on Judaism.