Jewish Images in the Christian Church: Art as the Mirror of the Jewish-Christian Conflict 200-1250 C.E. (review)

Abstract

This is an intriguing, nicely illustrated book written by a nonspecialist. Claman is a professor of medicine and immunology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and, according to the introduction, he and his wife first became interested in this topic as tourists in Europe. For a nonspecialist, Claman has done an admirable job of mastering the history of Christianity; how many of us JECS readers know very much about immunology? The book covers most of the Christian art known from late antiquity, and then moves west for the Middle Ages, largely bypassing Byzantine art. Claman's method is usually to describe the [End Page 146] general history of Jewish-Christian relations in a period, and then examine its Christian art for Old Testament images and themes. He then tries to see how these "Jewish" themes would have been understood by Christians, especially given the supersessionism of the literary sources. At times it is impossible to tell whether a supersessionist interpretation is the primary one, or whether the OT figures are simply meant to serve as moral and spiritual examples for the Christian faithful. Claman finds clues in the placement of OT images in churches like the fifth-century Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, leading like a procession up to the climactic New Testament scenes near the altar. Another similar example is the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, where OT images may have been consciously placed with NT parallels to indicate typological connections. In none of this is Claman breaking new interpretive ground, but his collection of a wide variety of art from different periods can serve as a useful introduction to the topic. A more thorough treatment of the topic may be found in Heinz Schreckenberg's 448-page The Jews in Christian Art: An Illustrated History (Continuum, 1996), cited heavily by Claman, but the price of that volume ($120) puts it out of reach of many.