Conversion and masculinity in the early medieval west

This chapter examines Jewish self-understanding in the context of conversion: self-confidence or suspicion, theological certainty or doubt, as well as the challenges that these posed to the formation of Jewish identity. The Bishop of Limoges, warned the Jewish community there to convert to Christianity or leave. Opinions regarding the movement of individuals into Judaism from Christianity and vice versa, are a central issue and serve well as a test case for examiningthe attitude and behaviour of a society under duress. Over the early medieval centuries, Christian culture dominated European thought and politics. In classical Jewish literature the Mishnah and the Talmud produced in Palestine in the firstcenturies of the Christian era and until the fifth century in Babylonia, the attitude towards one who had left the Jewish group and those who wished to join it was ambivalent and inconsistent.