Practicing Tolerance in a Religious Society: Online course

Practicing Tolerance in a Religious Society: The Church and the Jews in Italy is an online free course conducted by the University of Maryland.

About the course
This course shall ask a different question. Your focus is not on why a majority society saw Jews as different or reacted with violence to Jews' "otherness." Rather, they ask how in a society dedicated to religious uniformity one group of people was tolerated even though it refused to join the dominant faith. Many modern writers assume that Christianity, and perhaps religion itself, is inherently intolerant of non-believers. But you will see that neither religious nor secular world views necessarily lead to toleration or discrimination. The patterns of Christian-Jewish relations are both complex and intriguing.

Course Syllabus
Week 1: Judaism and Christianity in a Classical Context. Defining our Terms.
Week 2: The Birth of a Christian Empire
Week 3: Urban Culture & Crusading Armies. Merchants, Moneylenders & Monsters.
Week 4: Expulsions, Conversions & Ghettos
Week 5: Modernization. Liberal Nationalism & Church Reaction
Week 6: From Fascism to the Holocaust

Prerequisites
This course has no prerequisites.

Course Sessions
October 6, 2014 - November 22, 2014

For further information, click here.