| Abstrakt: |
In his Apology, Aristides paints a picture of Judaism that commentators have summarily praised as “surprising,” manifesting a “Jewish-friendly spirit,” “very favorable,” bearing “no trace of ill-feeling to the Jews,” “rather mild,” and lacking “every severity of tone, every anti-Jewish polemic.”1 In light of these positive notes, it seems rather shocking that scholarship on Aristides has traditionally devoted only cursory and insubstantial attention to his evaluation of the Jews, especially since it informs the study of early Jewish-Christian relations.2 Recently Judith Lieu and Denise Kimber Buell have attempted to remedy this gap.3 They have invigorated the study of Apology by approaching the text with a fresh set of questions and by posing solutions based on recent methodologies in literary and ethno-racial analysis. Their informed studies spotlight an “ethnic” discourse in Apology and the controlling influence it plays in Aristides’ construction of a Christian “race” distinguished from other ethnicities, including a Jewish “race.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
