In his book Judaism: The Genealogy of a Modern Notion (2018), Daniel Boyarin (Rhetoric and Near Eastern Studies) makes the bold claim that the very concept of a religion of “Judaism” is an invention of the Christian church. He argues that although the world treats the word “Judaism” as appropriate for naming an alleged religion of the Jews, it is in fact a Christian theological concept adopted by Jews only with the coming of modernity and the spread of Christian languages.

Boyarin is joined by Niklaus Largier (German and Comparative Literature).