CANCELED - Muslims Killed Christ? A Preposterous Medieval Allegation and Its Implications

Due to inclement weather on the East Coast, this lecture has been cancelled. The UCLA Center for the Study of Religion hopes to reschedule the event sometime in the spring. 

There are obvious reasons why it seems illogical to allege that Muslims participated in the crucifixion of Jesus, but a variety of medieval writers and artists did just that. Why did this charge make sense to them and their audiences? What function did it serve in efforts to shape European conceptions of Muslims--and of Christendom? Prof. Freidenreich will explore these questions within the broader framework of the ways Christians used ideas about Jews to think about Muslims during the Middle Ages.

David M. Freidenreich is the director of the Jewish studies program at Colby College. He is a member of the religious studies department, where he teaches a wide range of courses on Judaism, Jewish history, and comparative religion. After receiving a B.A. from Brandeis University, he earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. His award-winning first book,Foreigners and Their Food: Constructing Otherness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Law, explores attitudes toward adherents of foreign religions expressed in ancient and medieval laws about sharing food. He is currently studying the ways Christians have used ideas about Jews to think about Muslims.