Lecture: When Christians Were Jews and Jews Were Christians – On the Origins of Christianity in Antiquity

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Thomas Jürgasch, Church Historian, Tübingen

And when and why did anti-Judaism arise? When did Christianity actually emerge? At first glance, this question seems easy to answer; the incarnation of Jesus Christ—his life and work, his death, and the Easter experience of his resurrection—is usually regarded as the decisive historical turning point for the emergence of Christianity. In the context of the lecture, this perspective will be problematized against the backdrop of recent church historical research. The focus will be on the thesis that the development of Christianity as an independent religious entity began much later than classical narratives typically suggest. A particular role in this context is played by the question of when Christianity can be recognized as a distinct form of religion separate from Judaism; that is, when Christians stopped being Jews—and when Christians were no longer Jews. The lecture will address these and other questions in order to develop new perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, which are not only of historical value but also crucial for our contemporary coexistence.