disputation

A disputation between Jewish and Christian scholars, (1483).

In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish "truths" in theology and in other sciences. Fixed rules governed the process: they demanded dependence on traditional written authorities and the thorough understanding of each argument on each side.

Medieval disputations

Inter-faith disputations

A significant category of disputations took place between Christian and Jewish theologians in order to convince Jews to convert. Often the Christian side was represented by a recent convert from Judaism. Christians believed that only the refusal of the Jews to accept Christ stood in the way of the Second Coming. The only way for the Jewish side to 'win' was to force a draw by drawing the Christian side into a position in which it was necessary to deny the Old Testament to win, committing heresy. According to Michael J. Cook, "Since 'winning' a debate could well jeopardize the security of the Jewish community at large, political considerations certainly entered into what Jewish disputants publicly said or refrained from saying. ... Official transcripts of these proceedings, moreover, may not duplicate what actually transpired; in some places what they record was not the live action, as it were, but Christian polemical revision composed after the fact."^[1]

c. 1208. This 15th century painting by Pedro Berruguete depicts the legend of Saint Dominic and his Albigensian disputant tossing their books into a fire. Saint Dominic's books miraculously leapt out of the fire.

• 1240 - the Disputation of Paris during the reign of Louis IX of France (St. Louis) between a member of the Franciscan Order Nicholas Donin, who earlier converted from Judaism and persuaded Pope Gregory IX to issue a bull ordering the burning of the Talmud, and four of the most distinguished rabbis of France: Yechiel of Paris, Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Château-Thierry. The commission of Christian theologians condemned the Talmud to be burned and on June 17, 1244, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were set on fire in the streets of Paris.
• 1263 - the Disputation of Barcelona before King James I of Aragon: between the monk Pablo Christiani (a convert from Judaism) and Rabbi Nachmanides. At the end of disputation, king awarded Nachmanides a monetary prize and declared that never before had he heard "an unjust cause so nobly defended."^[2] Nevertheless the Dominicans claimed the victory and Nahmanides was exiled and his report of the proceedings was condemned and burned. A committee appointed by the king censored the passages from the Talmud they deemed offensive.^[3]
• 1375 - public disputations held at Burgos and Avila by Moses Cohen de Tordesillas with converts from Judaism John of Valladolid and Abner of Burgos. Another disputation was held at about the same time in Pampeluna by Shem-Tob ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela with Cardinal Don Pedro de Luna, afterward Pope Benedict XIII, the disputations being made the subjects of the books "'Ezer ha-Emunah" (by Moses) and "Eben Boḥan".^[4]
• 1413 - the Disputation of Tortosa in Spain, staged by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII. In result, the Pope gave instructions by which all books of the Talmud would be handed over to his functionaries for censorship.

Disputation in the Bible

The word disputation occurs only once in the King James Version of the Bible.

• "When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question." (Acts 15:2)

Contemporary disputations

Today some universities practice scientific disputations. The oral defense of a thesis is called "disputation" in some countries.

See also

Polemic

In fiction

• Hyam Maccoby (2001), The Disputation, Calder Publications Ltd, Paperback. ISBN 0-7145-4317-9.

References

Further reading

• Oliver S. Rankin, ed., Jewish Religious Polemic (Edinburgh: University Press, 1956)
• Frank E. Talmage, ed., Disputation and Dialogue: Readings in the Jewish-Christian Encounter (New York: Ktav, 1975)
• Daniel J. Lasker, Jewish Philosophical Polemic against Christianity in the Middle Ages (New York: Ktav, 1977)
• David Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1979)
• Hyam Maccoby, ed. and trans., Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages (East Brunswick, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1982)
• Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982)
• Robert Chazan, Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth Century Christian Missionizing and the Jewish Response (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).
• Martin A. Cohen, Reflections on the Text and Context of the Disputation of Barcelona, Hebrew Union College Annual 35 (1964): pp.157-92

External links

• Chalmers University, doctors disputations plan

• University of Chicago, public disputation announcement
• Jewish Encyclopedia article on Disputations

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