Holy Cross and Jewish Community Center to Sponsor Talk by Paula Fredriksen

Paula Fredriksen, considered one of the world’s foremost scholars on Saint Augustine, will speak about her most recent book, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism at the College of the Holy Cross, on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library, Smith Hall.  The event, a collaboration between the Worcester Jewish Community Center and the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at Holy Cross, is free and open to the public.

In Augustine and the Jews (Doubleday Religion, 2008), Fredriksen traces the social and intellectual forces that led to the development of Christian anti-Judaism and shows how and why Augustine (396-430) challenged it. Augustine urged that Jews should be left alone on the premise that God was the source of both Jewish scripture and the New Testament. His innovative defense of Jews ultimately served to protect their lives against the brutality of the medieval crusades.

Fredriksen is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture Emerita at Boston University and professor of religion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  Noted for her outspoken critique of the film The Passion of the Christ, her many publications include two award winning books:  From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament of Jesus (Yale, 2000), which was the basis of the popular PBS Frontline documentary, and Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (Knopf, 1999), which won a 1999 National Jewish Book Award.

There will be a book signing following the lecture.

This lecture is supported by the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Holy Cross.

For more information, visit the McFarland Center  or the Worcester Jewish Community Center.