Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Guy Stroumsa (Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Room 103, Scheide Caldwell House, Princeton University

The proposed paper seeks to analyze both Christian and Jewish sources from the seventh century dealing with eschatology. During the seventh century, eschatological expectations of both Christians and Jews were kindled anew. The dialectical interplay of these expectations, usually diametrically opposed to one another, bears directly upon the perception of the Muslim Arabs, in particular as they conquered Jerusalem, changing drastically its religious topography. The main assumption underlining this study is that the Jewish and Christian sources, read together, might shed some new light on the emergence of Islam. The focus will be on the figures of the Messiah and the Antichrist and on the interpretation of true and false prophecy, as well as the central place of the Temple Mount in the clash between religious identities.

Guy Stroumsa is the Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was educated in France, Israel, and the United States and he received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1978. Much of his career at the Hebrew University has been devoted to the teaching of early and Byzantine Christianity. As the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Christianity, he has sought to develop relations with the Greek Patriarchate and with Greek Universities. Guy Stroumsa has recently published La fin du sacrifice: les mutations religieuses de l'antiquité tardive (Paris, 2005), which will be published in English by Chicago U.P. He has just completed the preparation of Gershom Scholem and Morton Smith, Correspondence (1945-1982) for publication. He is currently working on the birth and early growth of the comparative study of religion in early modern times. [[last updated 2007]