Portuguese New Christians as Agents of Empire in India and Beyond

Описание: Departing from Jonathan Israel’s definition of New Christians and exConverso Sephardic Jews as both “agents and victims” of empire, this lecture examines how Portuguese New Christians and their supporters elaborated the idea that Christians of Jewish origin played a fundamental theological and economic role as significant agents of the Portuguese Empire in India, Brazil and other colonial domains. Focusing on the crystallization of a specific Portuguese identity as Christian members of the “Hebrew nation,” and led by skilled “men of commerce,” the lecture will focus on New Christian and pro-Converso writers from the seventeenth century, such as Duarte Gomes Solis, Martín de Cellorigo and Father António Vieira.

Claude B. Stuczynski is the Head of the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University. His main research is focused on the Iberian Converso or New Christian phenomenon and the Modern Inquisitions, mostly from a theological-political perspective. Having published, edited and taught in several languages and in different universities and research institutes in Israel, Europe and in the U.S.A., he recently co-edited in Hispania Judaica Bulletin, a special issue on: “Converso Paulinisms,” and authored several articles in which he claimed the need to study Converso exclusion from a specific theological standpoint (e.g. in the recent collection of articles: “The Hermeneutical Jew: Studies in Honour of Jeremy Cohen” edited by Ram Ben Shalom and Yisraeli). Among his research projects is the study and edition of two unknown anti-Converso writings imbued with conspiracy obsessions, by the seventeenth century Spanish Inquisitor, Juan Adam de la Parra; a reassessment of the views of the Jesuit Father António Vieira on Jews and New Christians; Conversos as agents and victims of Iberian Empires, and study and edition of a pro-Converso apology, written in 1624 by a Portuguese New Christian. Recorded by Frederick Noronha (FN) at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research. WhatsApp : +91-9822 122436.