The Spectral Jew: Conversion and Embodiment in Medieval Europe (review)

Steven Kruger says plainly in his introduction what his book sets out to do. He wants to show how in the Christian Middle Ages in England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy "Jewishness is a spectral presence, strongly felt and yet just as strongly derealized" (p. xvii). In chapter one he promises to examine the relevance of existing work on "spectrality" and "apparitionality" for the study of Jewish-Christian relations; chapter two is meant to display "that the differences in religious identity constructed by both Christian and Jewish writers depended significantly upon idealised and gendered imaginings of the body, with Christian chroniclers positing a heroic, masculine crusader's body over against decrepit Jewish and Muslim ones, and with Jewish chroniclers constructing both masculine and feminine models of heroic martyrdom" (p. xxviii). In chapter three Kruger argues that there is "a compelling case for seeing bodies, genders, and sexualities as intimately involved with religious identity and conversion" (p. xxviii). The book concludes with chapters 4 and 5 in which Kruger examines a number of texts which in his view revolve around issues of "identity and conversion, gender, sexuality, and embodiment" (p. xxix).

Kruger knows full well his approach will not be liked by all. He professes sympathy with David Nirenberg's call for historians to heed the specifics of time, place and circumstances in examining Jewish-Christian relations, although he justifiably defends his own interest in the underlying continuities in the tortured relationship between the mother and daughter religions. He is also all too aware of other critics who might assert that his approach ignores flesh and blood Jews. Indeed, it is in the final two chapters that Kruger's relentless drive to interpret everything through the prism of "bodies, genders and sexualities" lightens up a bit to make room for some thoughtful insights concerning the Genoese disputations which were supposed to be held in Ceuta in 1197 and Majorca in 1286 and the Talmud Trial at Tortosa in 1413–4. It is here that his ideas about the "spectral Jew" contribute something to understanding just how ambiguous Jewish conversion might have seemed to medieval Christians. It is only a pity he did not explore this in greater depth by pulling in, for example, the work of Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202), who had positive things to say about Jews because (and only because!) he was absolutely convinced their conversion was at hand. The polemical work of the convert William of Bourges (writing c. 1235) would also have been a good text to study. Ramon Llull (d. 1315/16) would have been a good candidate too. Instead, Kruger homes in on some very well known and intensively studied texts like the memoirs of Guibert of Nogent (d. c. 1125), the early twelfth-century dialogue of the convert Peter Alfonsi and the mid twelfth-century conversion account of Herman the Jew. In my view Kruger's method adds very little to what others have already written about these particular texts.

My fundamental problem with the first three chapters is that Jews seem to be lumped together with other so-called outsiders of medieval society (i.e., Muslims, heretics, homosexuals, prostitutes, lepers, etc.) in such a way that the marked differences between these categories and the important variations within these categories are overridden by explanatory terminology which reveals much more about contemporary issues than medieval ones. One case in point is that of Jews and Muslims. Of course, it is true that many similarities exist between the treatment of both by medieval Christians. But it is equally crucial to reflect on the substantial difference too. The fact that Muslim polities existed with powerful Muslim armies made a huge difference to Christian estimations of Islam. As for Jews, Kruger's methods do not in my view do enough to specify the different ways and reasons different Christian authors handled images of Jews and Judaism.

The finer details of the...