Jeremy Cohen

"Well, clearly, and articulately written, Living Letters of the Law is among the most important books in medieval European history generally, as well as in its particular field."—Edward Peters, author of The First Crusade

Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity

Living Letters of the Law

Traces the evolution of the image of the Jews as the murderers of the messiah, from its origins to the most recent expressions, drawing on sources that range from the gospel accounts of the crucifixion to film versions of the life of Christ, and assesses the influence of that myth on every aspect of Western culture.

The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen

Christ Killers

In this first book to focus on the myth that the Jews were responsible, directly and indirectly, for the death of Jesus Christ, Cohen explores the fascinating career of this myth, as he tracks the image of the Jew as the murderer of the messiah and God from its origins to its most recent expressions. 30 halftones.

Allys Andrews

Margie Hanrahan

Clare Callinan

Judy Mayne

Ven. Michael Yeshe

Ross Moore

Damien Busby

A selection of introductory teachings and meditations led by western Buddhist teachers for people dealing with the challenge of remaining calm while living modern, busy lives. Themes covered include how to be happy, finding inner peace, managing negative emotions, patience, compassion, the nature of reality and developing mindfulness and concentration in everyday life. The book provides a mix of accessible teachings and guided meditations. The book is suitable for anyone interested in meditation, whatever their spiritual beliefs.

An Introduction to Meditation by Western Buddhist Teachers

Meditations for Modern Minds

From Late Antiquity to the Reformation

Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict

How are martyrs made, and how do the memories of martyrs express, nourish, and mold the ideals of the community? Sanctifying the Name of God wrestles with these questions against the background of the massacres of Jews in the Rhineland during the outbreak of the First Crusade. Marking the first extensive wave of anti-Jewish violence in medieval Christian Europe, these "Persecutions of 1096" exerted a profound influence on the course of European Jewish history. When the crusaders demanded that Jews choose between Christianity and death, many opted for baptism. Many others, however, chose to die as Jews rather than to live as Christians, and of these, many actually inflicted death upon themselves and their loved ones. Stories of their self-sacrifice ushered the Jewish ideal of martyrdom—kiddush ha-Shem, the sanctification of God's holy name—into a new phase, conditioning the collective memory and mindset of Ashkenazic Jewry for centuries to come, during the Holocaust, and even today. The Jewish survivors of 1096 memorialized the victims as martyrs as they rebuilt their communities during the decades following the Crusade. Three twelfth-century Hebrew chronicles of the persecutions preserve their memories of martyrdom and self-sacrifice, tales fraught with symbolic meaning that constitute one of the earliest Jewish attempts at local, contemporary historiography. Reading and analyzing these stories through the prism of Jewish and Christian religious and literary traditions, Jeremy Cohen shows how these persecution chronicles reveal much more about the storytellers, the martyrologists, than about the martyrs themselves. While they extol the glorious heroism of the martyrs, they also air the doubts, guilt, and conflicts of those who, by submitting temporarily to the Christian crusaders, survived.

Jewish Martyrs and Jewish Memories of the First Crusade

Sanctifying the Name of God

This innovative, interdisciplinary book reconstructs the career of Genesis 1:28 ("Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it...") in Judaism and Christianity, from antiquity through the Reformation. Jeremy Cohen tracks the text through all the Jewish and Christian sources in which it figures significantly—in law, exegesis, homily, theology, mysticism, philosophy, and even vernacular poetry. In his view, the verse situates man and woman on a cosmic frontier, midway between the angelic and the bestial, charging them with singular responsibilities that bear directly on Jewish and Christian ideas of God's "chosen people."

The Ancient and Medieval Career of a Biblical Text

"Be Fertile and Increase, Fill the Earth and Master It"

David Sorkin

Martin Goodman

This volume on Jewish studies presents surveys of today's interests and directions in the humanities and social sciences. It covers the main areas taught and researched as part of Jewish studies in universities throughout the world, especially in Europe, the US, and Israel.

Jeremy Cohen

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