Associate Professor of History Magda Teter has published her first book, “Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland: A Beleaguered Church in the Post-Reformation Era.” The book was published by the Cambridge University Press last December.
A native of Poland, Teter became interested in the topic at home in 1994, after her first year as a graduate student of Jewish history at Columbia University.
“I had an encounter and a heated debate with a local priest about a painting in the local cathedral church depicting Jews in the act of murdering a Christian child,” Teter writes in her preface to the book. “The discussion left me with many questions about Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish-Church relations, and the attitudes of the Catholic Church toward Jews in premodern Poland.”
Teter began several years of research in 1996 while writing her dissertation. She came to Wesleyan in 2000 and completed “Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland” after several years spent teaching.
“I was intrigued that most people have an opinion on the subject of Jews and the Catholic Church in Poland even though no one really studied it,” Teter said. “I was also interested in the mechanisms of interaction and development of attitudes against ‘an Other’.”
In the process of researching and writing, Teter traveled to archives and libraries in Poland, Rome, Jerusalem and the United States. She was surprised to encounter trouble with a number of Church archivists who were wary of outside scholars.
In her book, Teter focuses on the Post-Reformation Polish Church’s prejudice against Jews through anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery. Teter’s experience with teaching gave her a strong perspective with which to write a historical account.
“Historical books should make us think of the relation between past and present, and examine, or reexamine, the views or values that we hold,” Teter said. “Contrary to the commonly held view that the Catholic Church triumphed in Poland, I argue that the presence of the ‘theological’ Jew, as represented in a long tradition of Christian anti-Jewish polemic, and the ‘real’ Jew, who interacted closely and daily with Christians, contributed to the Church’s sense of beleageurment.”
Despite balancing two careers, Teter finds no discrepancies between teaching and writing.
“I don’t think I can separate my role as an author from my role as a professor,” she said. “I try to imagine how [my students] would respond to the writing, the presentation, and the information I discuss in my writing. That’s why I have brought chapters of this book, when it was a work in progress, to my students to critique and comment on.”
Teter is now preparing to write a book on crime and religion.
“I am interested in the conditions of inter-religious crimes and violence,” she said.
At Wesleyan, Teter has taught a variety of courses on the topic of Jewish History, including a general history course and a seminar she is currently leading on Judaism in Eastern Europe.
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