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

宗教和民族或种族是身份的两个方面，它们以复杂多样的方式交叉和重叠。它们既不相同，也不完全可分离，但显然与当代世界一些最棘手、最突出的冲突联系在一起。在以基督教传统为主的当代欧洲和美国，最明显的重叠涉及对犹太人和穆斯林的描述和对待，他们往往是各种形式的偏见和敌意的目标。探索的关键是，传统上占主导地位的白人基督徒群体的自我认同是如何通过与其他群体的并置于一起来构建的，其中一个群体的独特性和优越性取决于另一个群体的特定描绘——尤其是在宗教和种族方面。提议的奖学金的主要目的是探索基督教起源时期犹太和基督教文本中宗教和民族或种族身份方面的相互交织，并揭示现代新约研究中这些学术描述的意识形态和政治动机。为了解决这些问题，计划中的项目将深入研究与一系列合作和跨学科活动相结合，这些活动将以新的方式发展研究员的领导能力，在国内和国际上建立研究关系，并通过一系列与影响相关的公众参与活动，将研究成果应用于具有重大意义的当代问题。解决核心问题将需要研究员参与来自不同背景和学科的学者的合作。该项目将在埃克塞特大学圣经研究中心主持，由该研究员担任主任。在该计划的第一阶段，着眼于特定的案例研究，研究将调查身份的“民族”，“种族”和“宗教”方面如何在基督教和犹太教文本中显而易见，并研究民族或种族术语如何在这些文本中部署，以构建身份，划定边界和面对感知威胁。该项目将质疑一种既定的学术倾向，即将犹太教作为一种种族身份与基督教作为一种非种族身份进行对比。在该研究员的带领下，一组来自不同学科的学者将在第一次项目研讨会上探讨这些问题。该研究还将记录从1815年到现在的一系列时期，特别是在英国、德国和美国，特别是在评论中对“基督徒”和“犹太人”身份的各种描述，这是圣经学术向更广泛的公众传播的最主要形式，特别是在教会中。在此过程中，本研究将展示基督教和犹太身份在新约研究领域的学术建构如何继续——尽管与过去明显的反犹主义观点有很大距离——反映出一种本质上是宗教和种族主义的意识形态，这种意识形态假定基督教具有优越的特征、成就和潜力。第二个项目研讨会，由研究员领导，将汇集在当代学术意识形态的批判性分析专家学者的不同组来探讨这些问题。由圣经研究中心主办的国际会议将汇集全球的声音，讨论基督教中宗教和民族或种族身份的交叉点，以及基督教对“他者”的建构和遭遇，以及圣经在产生和合法化这些身份方面的作用。最后，该项目将反思这些发现对英国等传统“基督教”社会的当代政治话语的影响，在这些社会中，社区凝聚力和种族和宗教团体之间的关系问题是突出的关注点。

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.