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The graphic novel and the film 300 retell the battle between Greeks and Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BCE. The heroes of the story are 300 Spartan warriors. This article analyses how the readers/viewers are moved to identify with the Spartan warriors, and to feel repelled by their opponents. This is achieved by portraying the Spartans as the defenders of reason and justice, and of the freedom of not just Greece but all of Europe against 'the armies of all Asia.' Their normalcy is underscored by portraying their sexuality in accordance with mainstream, heteronormative Western values. Their opponents, the Persians, the Spartan priests, and the Spartan traitors, are portrayed as monstrous, superstitious, and sexually perverted. This emphasis on the connection between religion and sexual perversion stands out as the most important element which the creators of 300 have added to the story, as compared to the classical sources., 1

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including how Jewish women used their bourgeois homes to establish their individual practices of Jewishness; and struggle in the middle of the nineteenth century for equal rights for Jews in Sweden.

Jag må bo mitt ibland dem. Stockholms stora synagoga 150 år, projektledare och redaktör: Marina Burstein, bildredaktör, grafisk form och foto: Karl Gabor (Stockholm: Hillelförlaget/Judiska församlingen i Stockholm, 2020). 203 sidor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with explicit permissions for two types of cross-dressing found in the thirteenth-century ethical tract Sefer Chasidim. In order to avoid being sexually assaulted, female Jewish travellers were allowed to disguise themselves as a. Christians, even as nuns, or b. men. This contradicts biblical and rabbinical prohibitions against such practices. These textual passages are discussed, set against the Jewish and Christian medieval discourse on dress and identity, and they are also related to other contemporary source texts that show that the borders between men and women, and Jews and Christians, as distinct and separate groups were at this time being contested. The author concludes that these permissions should not be seen as ways of transcending the boundaries of the group, but rather as part of a discourse that served to strengthen such boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses different types of role-play and how they can be used in teaching religion in various settings. The connection between historical role-play and classroom discussion of contemporary questions of ethics and identity within the framework of Religious Education (RE) is also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called Barcelona disputation of 1263 was one of the earliest Jewish-Christian disputants in medieval Europe. The disputants were Paul Christian, a Jewish convert to Christianity and member f the Dominican order, and the well known Jewish sage Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman of Gerna). In the disputant Paul Christian used an innovative method: he attempted t prove the truth f basic Christian dogma, for instance that the Messiah had already come, by using classical Jewish texts, especially the Talmud. Paul Christian used the same method in his sermons which the Jews in the area were forced to listen to. When one analyses the arguments he employs, it becomes obvious how he alludes t both Jewish and Christian traditions in order to convince his listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of a selection of American disaster movies from the past decades reveals the presence of a certain kind of martyr character. These martyrs do not die for their religious or ideological faith but rather in order to save loved ones, sometimes the entire planet. These movie martyrs differ to a great extent from classical Christian martyrs as portrayed in medieval legends. The modern movie martyrs are usually old, and often social outcasts in different ways. Often they have failed as parents, are alcoholics or criminals. Their death is their way of redeeming themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]