Sacred Communities: Jewish and Christian Identities in Fifteenth-Century Germany: 23 (Studies in Central European Histories) - Hardcover

"Bell, Dozent am Spertus College of Jewish studies an der Universitat Chicago legt die wohl wichtigste Arbeiten der letzten Jahre uber Juden und Christen im deutschen Spatmittelalter vor." Helmrath, Gender Studies

This book examines the nature and extent of changes in communal structures and self-definition among Jews and Christians in Germany during the century before the Reformation. It argues that Christian community was restructured along civic and religious lines resulting in the development of a local "sacred society" that integrated material and spiritual well being into a moral and legal society, stressing the common good and internal peace, while Jewish community, given a variety of factors, came to be defined through regional communal structures and moral and legal discourse that allowed for broader geographical communal identity. Bell draws from a variety of German, Latin, and Hebrew sources and takes into consideration several methods and viewpoints of studying history.