Ethnicity, race, and religion in early Christian and Jewish identities: a critical examination of ancient sources and modern scholarship

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Religion and ethnicity or race are facets of identity that intersect and overlap in complex and varied ways. They are neither identical nor entirely separable, but clearly bound up in some of the most intractable and prominent conflicts in the contemporary world. The most obvious overlaps in contemporary Europe and the USA, with their predominantly Christian traditions, concern the depiction and treatment of Jews and Muslims, often the target of various forms of prejudice and hostility. Crucial to explore are the ways in which the self-identity of the dominant white traditionally-Christian population is constructed by juxtaposition with these others, where the distinctiveness and superiority of the one depends on a certain portrayal - not least in religious and ethnic terms - of the other.The key aim for the proposed fellowship is to explore the intertwining of religious and ethnic or racial facets of identity in Jewish and Christian texts from the period of Christian origins, and to expose the ideological and political motivations of scholarly depictions of these in modern New Testament scholarship. In addressing these issues, the planned programme combines intensive research with a range of collaborative and interdisciplinary activities that will develop the Fellow's leadership in new ways, build research relationships in this country and internationally, and bring this research to bear on contemporary issues of major significance through a range of impact-related and public engagement activities. Addressing the central issues will require the Fellow to engage the collaboration of scholars from a range of contexts and disciplines. The project will be hosted in Exeter's Centre for Biblical Studies, under the Fellow's directorship. In the first phase of the programme, looking at particular case studies, the research will investigate how 'ethnic', 'racial' and 'religious' facets of identity are evident in Christian and Jewish texts, and examine how ethnic or racial terms are deployed in these texts in constructing identity, drawing boundaries, and confronting perceived threat. The project will question an established scholarly tendency to contrast Judaism as a form of ethnic identity with Christianity as a non-ethnic identity. Under the Fellow's leadership a group of scholars from various disciplines will explore these questions in the first project workshop. The research will also document the varied depictions of 'Christian' and 'Jewish' identity in scholarship across a range of time periods from 1815 to the present, particularly in Britain, Germany, and the USA, and particularly in commentaries - the most prominent form in which biblical scholarship is communicated to a wider public, especially in the churches. In doing this, the research will show how scholarly constructions of Christian and Jewish identities in the field of New Testament studies continue - despite all the distancing from the more obviously antisemitic perspectives of the past - to reflect an essentially religious and racist ideology which presumes the superior character, achievements, and potential of Christianity. A second project workshop, led by the Fellow, will bring together a different group of scholars expert in the critical analysis of the ideologies of contemporary scholarship to explore these issues. An international conference, hosted by the Centre for Biblical Studies, will bring global voices into conversation about the intersections of religious and ethnic or racial identities in Christianity and in Christian constructions of and encounters with 'others', and the role of the Bible in generating and legitimating such identities. Finally, the project will reflect on the implications of these findings for contemporary political discourse in traditionally 'Christian' societies such as Britain, where issues of community cohesion and relations between ethnic and religious groups are prominent concerns.