Date of Award

4-6-2026

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Professor Justin Glessner

Second Advisor

Professor Andrea Sununu

Third Advisor

Professor Amity Reading

Abstract

Emerging from the highly diverse religious landscape of second-century Judea, Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism did not arise organically as separate religious categories but were deliberately formed into theologically distinct groups. Writers of a genre of religious literature called heresiology engaged in the exercise of defining their traditions by the process of identifying theological alternatives, establishing orthodoxy by determining and repudiating possible heresies. Their effort in the second century to establish these religious categories by the explicit identification of the theological boundaries around them evidences the intentional creativity involved in the initial development of these familiar religious categories. The self-definitions created by heresiologists from within both early Christianity and early Rabbinic Judaism rested on the rejection of alternative theologies, instituting religious identities for both traditions that depended on exclusionary rhetoric for their self-conception. As a formative, prolific voice within the genre, Justin Martyr exemplifies the exclusionary motivations within heresiology. Employing polarizing language in order to define his notion of Christianity, he develops a narrow understanding of Christian identity that informs the trajectory of Christianness in the following centuries. While less explicit, Rabbinic heresiological writings, notably the instances within the Mishnah, also sought to shape Jewish identity into a singular theological category. Both Christianity and Rabbinism in the second century were identities shaped deliberately via the polarized views forwarded in heresiological literature. The narrow identities for Christianity and Rabbinism forwarded by the heresiologists of either tradition functioned to defend both groups against Roman colonial oppression. Appealing to the scriptural covenant in which God promises his people deliverance from oppression and ultimate, divine victory against their enemies, both Christian heresiologists and the Rabbis sought to define themselves not only in terms of theological orthodoxy but also as the inheritors of God’s covenant to his people. Competing for the promise made to the Israelites, Christians and Rabbinic Jews alike claimed to be the nation of God’s people, and their desperate effort at self-definition exemplified their desire for the salvation awarded to that nation. Modern religious participation in the United States differs from this second-century context in nearly every aspect: principally, modern participants no longer face the colonial oppression endured by their second-century counterparts, and the impulse to establish and defend one’s cultural and religious identity against that blatantly oppressive presence is equally absent. However, the exclusionary rhetoric within heresiological literature still proves relevant to many modern religious participants in the U.S., both Christian and Jewish. Many religious participants—Christian in particular—see themselves in constant opposition against alternative opinions and theologies. This polarized view so pervades the Christian self-understanding that participants will often readily equate disagreement, theological or otherwise, with unjust, even villainous persecution. The discourse in the U.S. about the conflict in Gaza and the West Bank since Oct. 7th 2023 exemplifies this dichotomous understanding. As American Zionists, Christian and Jewish, address their opposers with accusations of antisemitism and even, at times, terrorism, the polarized view of Zionist participants becomes clear. Motivated by a self-concept that vehemently poses insiders against outsiders, the recent Zionist position reflects a binary understanding that limits the possibility for compromise by its indiscriminate vilification of alternative perspectives.

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