PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

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Taking the postmodern verbiage and philosophical challenge, we can say that the concept of
"corporeality" as a mark of natural ethics (Umberto Eco) without the theological value
(christological value) It is not so much a matter of "me" and the "other" as finite beings, but the
finite "me" as corporeal and the "infinite christological Other" with humanity. It is the value of
corporeality given in the "Incorporeal" at the moment of incarnation, and that is in the
christological sense of humanity and human relations. Since we are so bound to our human
condition, and limited to our cognitive faculties, the only way to know something of value in
history it is not (we would say) through the "cold" rational understanding of the kantian
numen/phenomenon but through the relationship created by the Other: that is through the
meaning of forgivness, love, righteousness etc. But all these are values, of our human
existence, that can be found with a proper and particular rationality only among humans (and
that is in their societal behaviour: the christological example of the cross). So, rationality and
values are not proper only to natural sciences but to the study of human phenomenology in a
particular way. That particular way is theological (value: the actions of forgiveness, love etc)
and the means are historical/historiographycal: event (the Christological meaning of
incarnation, incorporeal/corporeal, the Other as corporeal. As the"corporeality" of the Other is
not a metaphor and its humanity should not be consider a "metaphor" or we will reduce our
human existence and our relationships to nonsense just because of been too much afraid of
theological realism). Christology show to us that theological realism is at least as realistic as
social realism and it shows to us that finite and the contingent things/beings can receive
theological value (the cross, the human body, the self redefined in christological sense). So, to
know it is also to understand but its applicability is always existential.
Wed 16 th , 16.00, Classroom 13
Sarah Ljubibratic, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Jews and New Christians under the Roman Inquisition. A Maltese variant of Marranism?
Jewish Slaves in the Mediterranean Sea
In the sixteenth century’s Mediterranean context, the Maltese archipelago has been established
as a ‘frontière de chrétienté’, while at the same time, it represented the center of the
Mediterranean corsairing. During this period, the Islands were controlled by two authorities: on
one hand, the Order of Saint-John of Jerusalem, which received the Island from Charles V in
1524 and settled down in 1530; on a second hand, the Holy Office, established since 1574,
which was in charge of moral and religious order in Malta. Malta being considered as a
corsairing state, the main income of the Order came from the plunders brought back by the
vessels from the expeditions on the East of the Mediterranean Sea and along the North African
coast. All the goods and passengers were meant to the Treasury of the Order. The seizures
comprised many Jews who were making their way to the East and the Ottoman Empire. The
Jews, sold into captivity, could only obtain their freedom if ransomed by relatives or by the
Confraternities for the Redemption of Captives (Hevrath Pidiom Shevouyim) of Venice and
Leghorn. In view of this context, my work intends to analyse the situation of the Jews of Malta.
In fact, Maltese historiography considers the end of the Maltese Jewish community as a result
of the Edict of Expulsion of 1492 – Malta being under of the Spanish Crown – bringing them
to conversion and to the exile to Sicily. Nonetheless, the arrival of the Knights of St-John of
Jerusalem and the raise of the Christian corsairing lead to the settling of a new Jewish
community on the island: a slave community, in the hands to the Order, and in contact with
free Jewish merchants tributary of a safe-conduct. These individuals were confronted to two
distinct problems: first, the Inquisition and its goal of maintaining a moral and religious order
on this border-island, where the Jews could have represented a threat; secondly, slavery and