Apostasy and jewish identity in high middle ages Northern Europe

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Michael Paine

The first crusade was set in motion by Pope Urban II in 1095 and culminated in the capture of Jerusalem from the Muslims four years later. In 1291 the fall of Acre marked the loss of the last Christian enclave in the Holy Land. This book traces the chronology of the Crusades between these two dates and highlights the most important figures on all sides of the conflict. It covers the creation of the kingdom of Jerusalem and the other crusader states and their struggle to survive. It looks at the successes and failures of the Third Crusade and at the legendary figures of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, explores the truth and the myths behind the orders of military monks like the Hospitallers and examines such strange historical events as the Children's Crusade and the crusader sacking of Byzantium in 1204. It also looks at the struggles of the Teutonic Knights against paganism in the Baltic. The book provides the essential information about one of the great unifying, and disunifying, forces of medieval Christendom.

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Frank E. Eakin, Jr

What Price Prejudice? examines the long tradition of antisemitism by giving an overview of the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Frank Eakin's work will help Christians to reflect seriously and objectively upon history and theology - and their impact on Jewish-Christian relations. The book is written so that it will serve for use both in the classroom and by church/synagogue groups. Discussion questions follow each chapter to stimulate discussion and encourage further reflection on the issues addressed.

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Sylvia Rodríguez

The Matachines Dance - "the beautiful dance of subjugation," as Sylvia Rodriguez calls it - derives from a genre of medieval European folk dramas symbolizing conflict between Christians and Moors. Spaniards brought it to the Americas as a vehicle for Christianizing the Indians. In this book, Rodriguez explores the colorful, complex, and often enigmatic Matachines dance as it is performed today by Pueblo Indians and Hispanos in New Mexico. Previous studies of the Matachines dance dealt mainly with its origins, distribution, and descriptive details. Rodriguez's work instead focuses on the larger cultural, ecological, historical, and political-economic setting within which each community's performance is organized. She analyzes observed behavior, incorporates native explanation, and interprets the dance's symbols in attempting to discover what the dance means to those who perform it and what its performance reveals about the people who do it. For both Indians and Hispanos in New Mexico, the dance is not merely an archaic survival but an ongoing way of coping with and commenting on the history of ethnic domination as it continues to unfold in the upper Rio Grande valley.

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David Crowe

A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia, drawn from previously untapped East European, Russian, and traditional sources, explores the life, history, and culture of the Gypsies, or Roma, from their early appearance in the region during the Middle Ages until the present. David Crowe's study looks at the rich and diverse cultural and historical traditions of the Gypsies in each nation and region. He covers Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the republics of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, and the states that made up the former Soviet Union. He focuses in particular on Russia, where the Gypsies have exerted a profound influence on literary and musical traditions. . Crowe also explores the virulent prejudice and mistreatment that has been so much a part of the Gypsies' tragic history and culminated in their losses during the Nazi Holocaust. He concludes with a close look at the revival of this prejudice and the plight of the Roma today as they struggle to redefine their role in the new worlds of post-communist Eastern Europe and Russia.