The Brother John G. Driscoll Professorship
in Jewish-Catholic Studies

The annual lecture highlights the work of Jewish and Catholic scholars in an effort to illuminate either the broader history of Jewish-Catholic relations or specific topics that bear on the understanding between the two faiths.

2007-2008
Violence, Culture and Assimilation: Jews and Christians in Late Medieval Spain
Thursday, November 29, 2007 ***7:30 pm*** Spellman Lounge

Viewing violence as a cultural practice, this lecture compares conflict and violence within Christian and Jewish societies in order, first, to shed light on Jewish acculturation to the wider Christian milieu, and, then, to offer a new perspective on why, after the anti-Jewish violence and forced baptisms of 1391, many Jewish converts and their descendants (conversos) assimilated into Christian society.  The analysis of violence among Christians also serves to explain Christian mob violence against Jews in 1391, a watershed year in the history of Spain 's Jews.

Invited Scholar:
Mark Meyerson is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto .  His research interests center on the history of medieval and early modern Spain , particularly social history and Christian-Muslim-Jewish relations. Among other works, he is the author of The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade (1991) and Jews in an Iberian Frontier Kingdom (2004); he is editor of A Great Effusion of Blood? Interpreting Medieval Violence (2004).  His new project, “Of Bloodshed and Baptism: Social Violence and Religious Conflict in Late Medieval Valencia” is supported by the Guggenheim Foundation.

2006-2007
The lecture Violence, Culture, and Assimilation: Jews and Christians in Late Medieval Spain scheduled for the Spring 2007 was canceled due to unavoidable circumstances for the lecturer. It will be rescheduled for 07-08.

2005-2006
Making Peace Wiith the "Enemies" of Jesus: Assessing the Opposition to Jesus in the Christian Gospels
March 28, 7:30pm, Spellman Hall
Rev. George M. Smiga, Scripture and Homiletic Faculty of St. Mary Seminary and pastor of St. Noel Catholic Church

2004-2005
Jews and Christians: Praying Together With Integrity
February 2, 7:30pm, Spellman Lounge
Rabbi Charles Arian, Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, MD.

2003-2004
Catholic Biblical Perspectives on Jews and the Jewish People
Judaism airector Center for Christian and Jewish Learning, Boston College
March 10, 2004, 8pm, Spellman Lounge
Dr. Philip Cunningham, Director of the Center for Christian and Jewish Learning, Boston College

2002-2003
Sacrifice as the Basis of Worship: An Overlooked Commonality of Judaism and Catholicism
Dr. Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University

2001-2002
New Directions in Catholic-Jewish Dialogue
Dr. Michael A. Signer, Abrams Professor of Jewish-Thought and Culture, The University of Notre Dame

2000-2001
Catholic-Jewish Relations: Controversies and Challenges for the Future
Dr. Eugene Fisher, Director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Dialogue

1999-2000
Catholic and Jews in the Twenty-First Century: The Unfinished Agenda
Rabbi A. James Rudin, then AJC National Director of Interreligious Affairs

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