The University of Tübingen has awarded the 2024 Leopold Lucas Prize to David Nirenberg, a leading medieval historian. The award committee recognized Nirenberg’s research on the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages and today.
David Nirenberg is Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and author of books such as Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages and Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today. The award committee stated:
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In his works, Nirenberg deals with the coexistence and opposition of the three religions both in small-scale studies, especially on late medieval Spain and France, and in large-scale overviews spanning epochs. In his publications, he shows that both socially prescribed categories and individual experience contribute to how members of the three religious groups perceive each other.
He pays particular attention to how the individual’s own experience and widespread ideas influence and alter one other. He carefully contextualizes violence between religious groups or individuals in historical terms, explaining its causes and intentions without excusing the violence or dismissing it as irrationality. He works through anti-Judaism in Western thought since antiquity, placing its various manifestations precisely into their respective historical contexts. By rationally explaining phenomena of rejection and violence and placing them in social, political and economic contexts, he also shows ways for religions to coexist peacefully.
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The Leopold Lucas Prize was founded in 1972 by Consul General Franz D. Lucas, Honorary Senator of the University of Tübingen – on the occasion of the 100th birthday of his father, the Jewish scholar Dr. Leopold Lucas. The prize honours people whose scientific work promotes relationships between people and nations and makes a contribution to spreading the idea of tolerance.
The University of Tübingen has awarded the 2024 Leopold Lucas Prize to David Nirenberg, a leading medieval historian. The award committee recognized Nirenberg’s research on the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages and today.
David Nirenberg is Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and author of books such as Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages and Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today. The award committee stated:
In his works, Nirenberg deals with the coexistence and opposition of the three religions both in small-scale studies, especially on late medieval Spain and France, and in large-scale overviews spanning epochs. In his publications, he shows that both socially prescribed categories and individual experience contribute to how members of the three religious groups perceive each other.
He pays particular attention to how the individual’s own experience and widespread ideas influence and alter one other. He carefully contextualizes violence between religious groups or individuals in historical terms, explaining its causes and intentions without excusing the violence or dismissing it as irrationality. He works through anti-Judaism in Western thought since antiquity, placing its various manifestations precisely into their respective historical contexts. By rationally explaining phenomena of rejection and violence and placing them in social, political and economic contexts, he also shows ways for religions to coexist peacefully.
The Leopold Lucas Prize was founded in 1972 by Consul General Franz D. Lucas, Honorary Senator of the University of Tübingen – on the occasion of the 100th birthday of his father, the Jewish scholar Dr. Leopold Lucas. The prize honours people whose scientific work promotes relationships between people and nations and makes a contribution to spreading the idea of tolerance.
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