Christians and Jews in the Twelfth-Century Werewolf Renaissance

Abstract

In the late twelfth century, northern European Jewish mystics engaged in a sustained, unprecedented effort to explore the theological meaning of werewolves. This article seeks to anchor this surprising preoccupation in contemporary European religious culture, arguing that medieval Jews and Christians found werewolves "good to think with" in exploring the spiritual status of the (mutable, unstable) human body. Discourses of monstrosity were used as polemical ammunition in Jewish-Christian debates, but monstrous creatures were simultaneously held to be theologically resonant by both communities-a fact that sheds light upon the broader intellectual and cultural setting in which they were joint participants.

On the Importance of Wolves

“…Medieval literature routinely depicts werewolves as sympathetic protagonists in ways that piqued theological interest—not so much in demonic activity as in the constitution of interior human consciousness as bodies came to resemble wolves (Otten 2002). Yet throughout this literature there appears a continuous resistance to stories of complete transformation, with the eyes of the wolf maintaining their original human form (Shyovitz 2014, 526). Rarely treating the matter metaphorically or even as literary motif, several twelfth‐century theologians posit that becoming a wolf involves internal continuity alongside external transformation.…”

Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: Religious Experiences in the Life-Story of a Machinekin

“…"Otherkin," therefore, is the umbrella term that is used for this conglomeration of types. Other-than-human expressions have a long history that can be found, for example, in archaeological and anthropological reports of animals and humans melding or blending together (Antl-Weiser 2018; Lindstrøm 2012); the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope and Cynicism, with the nickname "cynic" meaning "doglike" (Branham 1998(Branham , 2009; Nordic literary epics that speak of elven races that interact with humans (Hall 2007;Johannsen 2016); numerous tales about werewolves found in Greek, Roman, Jewish, French, and Irish sources (Bourgault du Coudray 2003;Gordon 1974;Mullin 1999;Nelson 2012;Panxhi 2015;Schwartz 1987;Shyovitz 2014); and in accounts surrounding vampires that span from the late sixteenth century to the present day (Bahna 2015;Introvigne 2001;Melton 1999;Nelson 2012;Laycock 2010). Otherkin in its current, contemporary form is said (emically) to have arisen out of American counter-culture movements of the 1960s and 1970s, with Otherkin (including those who considered themselves "real" elves, vampires, werewolves, etc.)…”