Very Pleased with Oklahoma Public Policy Lecture

I am very pleased to share this link to the Oklahoma Public Policy Lecture I presented (with significant friends) in November, 2009.

If you have the time to follow this below -- you will see a video link and audio link - including transcript - and you will have opportunity to hear and see my friends who helped make this presentation with me.

LINK:  Why the Faith Community Should be Involved Human Services.

Posted via email from Marty Alan Michelson, Ph.D. Sermon Archive

Images of Jews by Christians - Art and Representation

Over the past few days at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Study, I have had time to spend with Sara Lipton from SUNY Stonybrook.  The time together has been delightful in several ways but principally because Sara has done such an excellent job of rapidly reviewing how art is not just a reflection of culture but of how art shapes culture.  --

Sara has demonstrated her breadth of competence in numerous ways - but principally by presenting a huge breadth of primary and secondary images and literature for review on art and images from about 1000 CE to 1500 CE. 

One of the images central to her review is the image I linking here  - an Exchequer Receipt Roll from 1233 that is a caricature of Isaac of Norwich - a Jew who bribed the king in order to not pay taxes - and who became one of the wealthiest persons of his day.  As a result, in Sara's interpretation of this image, the exchequer of the king was caricaturizing Isaac and the other Jews who were being taken advantage by the King.  This says, Sara is when the "hooked nose" of the Jew truly first began - so far as we can tell.  And, in fact, the "hooked nose" was not yet central in stereotypes but only emerges after this image.

This has been only a small portion of the many things shared - and the numerous images reviewed - by Sara - but a key small part of our several days together.

Her work has been informative and enlightening to me in several ways as I have come to see and appreciate Medieval Art - both sanctioned and "graffiti" art - and how the images of the Jew  shaped over time and only emerged over decades of stereotyping.  I had known this before - but am able to "see" it and connect the history in art in new and more deliberate ways!  Solid scholarship by Sara!

A great series of days for thinking about Jewish-Christian Relationships - especially as reflected in Christian images and art.

Posted via email from Recent Reading & Reflections: Collecting Random Thoughts In No Particular Order

Libraries, Research, Scholars, Jews, Christians, Wesleyans, Nazarenes and Friends.

Pictured here with my "Bodleian Libraries" reader card! I was sworn in by the oath, taken by centuries of scholars.

I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.

The day before I was not permitted to enter the Radliffe Camera - but moments after taking this picture I showed my reader card and went in to start some research connected to my work here on Jewish-Christian relationships.

The last few days included a gamut of reading - but also delightful conversation. My colleagues here in Oxford include a truly eclectic group. Medieval scholars, Chaucer scholars, Church historians, Jewish historians, a Gaelic scholar, a Midrash Scholar, Literature Scholars and at another colleague specializing in Jewish-Christian perspectives from the period following the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

The first several days have included insight on how Christians viewed Jews, in particular, from Augustine to Isodore of Seville. Jeremy Cohen from Tel-Aviv University has been a gracious and astute guide for our first days of discussion. Many good connections for me to have made - and I was delighted to have a personal connection with discerning Isodore's work in light of past travel I made to Toledo, Spain.

I gathered for Evensong at Christ Church College of the University of Oxford, where John and Charles Wesley were ordained.

Tomorrow I head to Manchester for a reunion at Nazarene Theological College, where I completed my programme of study for my Ph.D. from the University of Manchester!

I pass a Quaker Meeting House where I will have opportunity to gather for meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays as I make time to orient my days.

Here I am pictured outside the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Study where we gather for our shared dialogue. A perfect place to share conversation.

July and August 2010 - Oxford, England Reading Programme

Download now or preview on posterous

Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Study Reading.pdf (714 KB)

I will spend 5 weeks in July and August in Oxford - reading a library of texts on issues exploring Jewish-Christian Relationship - including perspectives on "otherness."  The work will take place connected both to Oxford University where I will have access to the Bodleian Library and where my work will be coordinate with faculty and research scholars from around the world, principally sharing our time together at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

A few years back I completed my research toward my Dissertation from the University of Manchester.  I lived and worked out of the Nazarene Theological College while there completing research in the John Rylands Library.  I just discovered that I will have opportunity to attend a reunion at NTC on July 11th.  What a delight!

Upon my return I'll immediately be away to Duke University to continue my work with their Faith and Leadership Program.

And, then back to Oklahoma to ramp up (quickly!) for a full program of courses for the Fall.

Needless to say, I do not anticipate posting often or at all to my blog in the next few weeks.  But, I may surprise myself!

Most of my time will be invested in this schedule of reading I send along in PDF format.  I'll be busy - and look forward to it!

Posted via email from Marty Alan Michelson, Ph.D.