The Jewish-Christian Controversy

Samuel Krauss (1866-1948), formerly Rector of the Israelitisch-theologische Lehranstalt in Vienna, was one of the last great representatives of the Wissenschaft des Judentums. His substantial studies of the Jews in the Graeco-Roman world continue to be used as reference books. This volume forms a handbook to the history of Jewish-Christian controversy, from Christian origins to the eighteenth century. It seeks to introduce both Christian and Jewish apologetic and polemic. Substantial chapters deal with the ancient world, including the Byzantine empire, and with the mediaeval and early modern periods. The still relatively inaccessible literature of mediaeval and later Jewish polemic is catalogued and discussed. The unpublished original work by Samuel Krauss has been edited, revised and updated. The supplementary material which is incorporated throughout introduces newer work and areas of study, with special attention to bibliography. This volume, complete in itself, offers full and detailed guidance to the subject and to its study in modern times. "This is a rich, highly useful guide to the documentary sources and scholarly literature bearing on the Jewish-Christian controversy form ancient to early modern times ... one can heartily recommend this book to specialist and generalist alike ... Historians of the Jewish-Chrsitian debate would do well to keep it within close reach of their desks and to emphasize its importance to their students." Jeremy Cohen in The Jewish Quarterly Review (1999), pages 409-410 "The Krauss/Horbury volume under review with its updated bibliography and many supplementary remarks is ... an extremely valuable reference book and main research tool ... " Hanne Trautner-Kromann in Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge (1999), S. 174-175