This lecture explores how early Christian literature and its readers contributed to the construction of “the Jew” as a meaningful figure within Christian thought. Focusing on the gospels and the letters of Paul, it examines how early Christian texts spoke about Jews and Judaism while working through questions of interpretation and identity. The lecture then turns to early non-canonical writings and patristic sources, tracing how these ways of imagining the Jewish other were repeated and adapted as the early Christian movement continued to take shape. By following these literary trajectories, the lecture invites reflection on how early Christian texts shaped inherited ways of thinking about Jews—and why attending to those constructions remains important today.

Speaker

Eric Vanden Eykel, Ph.D. is an associate professor of religious studies at Ferrum College. His research focuses on early Christian literature, with an emphasis on “apocryphal” or “non-canonical” texts (i.e., texts that were important to early Christians but for a variety of reasons were not included in the New Testament).  He has a particular interest in a text called the Protevangelium of James (also known as the Protevangelium Iacobi or the Proto-Gospel of James), which is a collection of stories about the birth and childhood of Mary the mother of Jesus.