The Image of the Jew, the Image of the Heretic: Building Christian Orthodoxy between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. A Research Perspective

The anti-Jewish texts, apart from their disputed historical reliability, are primarily focused on the necessity for self-definition of Christian communities. This need was particularly urgent in the first centuries, as it was a matter of creating a separate identity in distinction to Judaism. It persisted in the following centuries as disputes of a different kind emerged, involving varying interpretations of Christian doctrine that could lead to sectarianism or schism, or arising from interaction with other faiths such as Manichaeism and Islam. The dialectical tools forged in the fire of controversy with the Jews to define a consciousness of self were used to delineate a heritage of faith, even in relation to other experiences perceived as danger. In patristic literature, especially in polemics, it is easy to see how often Christian authors put Jews, heretics, and pagans on the same level, considering them “enemies” because of their “perversion” and stubborn resistance to the true, Catholic faith.