Product Information
The historical separation between Judaism and Christianity is often figured as a clearly defined break of a single entity into two separate religions. Following this model, there would have been one religion known as Judaism before the birth of Christ, which then took on a hybrid identity. Even before its subsequent division, certain beliefs and practices of this composite would have been identifiable as Christian or Jewish.In Border Lines, however, Daniel Boyarin makes a striking case for a very different way of thinking about the historical development that is the partition of Judaeo-Christianity. There were no characteristics or features that could be described as uniquely Jewish or Christian in late antiquity, Boyarin argues. Rather, Jesus-following Jews and Jews who did not follow Jesus lived on a cultural map in which beliefs, such as that in a second divine being, and practices, such as keeping kosher or maintaining the Sabbath, were widely and variably distributed. The ultimate distinctions between Judaism and Christianity were imposed from above by border-makers, heresiologists anxious to construct a discrete identity for Christianity. By defining some beliefs and practices as Christian and others as Jewish or heretical, they moved ideas, behaviors, and people to one side or another of an artificial border-and, Boyarin significantly contends, invented the very notion of religion.Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN-139780812237641
eBay Product ID (ePID)86536947
Product Key Features
Book TitleBorder Lines: the Partition of Judaeo-Christianity
AuthorDaniel Boyarin
FormatHardcover
LanguageEnglish
TopicJudaism
Publication Year2004
TypeTextbook
Number of Pages392 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height235mm
Item Width155mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorDaniel Boyarin
Topic AreaSocial Organisations
Series TitleDivinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States