Abstract
“Constructing Judaism and Christianity (70 CE–1054 CE)” looks at how as Christians felt they now had to work to put form to their religion and its institutions, Jews were faced with the task of refashioning theirs. After the Temple’s destruction in 70 ce, Jews had to replace the observances and cult that had depended on its existence, investing legitimacy in new spaces, practices, leaders, and methods of textual interpretation. Christians were similarly trying to systematize their own scriptures, theology, and ecclesiastical organization. These identity constructions took shape as each group sought to distinguish itself from the others and their political fortunes shifted. Christianity’s elevation within the Roman Empire connected the faith to state power in ways that would inform the statement of its core theological premises, amplify divisions within the Church, and configure the course of Jewish–Christian relations.
