Ancient peoples regarded names as indicative of character and destiny. The Jews were no exception. This is a critical study of ancient exegesis of the title `Israel' and the meanings attributed to it among Jews down to Talmudic times, along with some early Christian materials. C. T. R. Hayward explores ancient etymologies of `Israel', and the utilization of these very varied explanations of the name in sustained works of exegesis like Jubilees; the writings of Ben Sira, Philo, and Josephus; and selected Rabbinic texts including Aramaic Targumim. He also examines translational works like the Septuagint, to illuminate those writings' sense of what it meant to be a Jew.

This collection builds on the foundational work of Penelope D. Johnson, John Boswell's most influential student outside queer studies, on integration and segregation in medieval Christianity. It documents the multiple strategies by which medieval people constructed identities and, in the process, wove the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion among various individuals and groups. The collection adopts an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing historical, art historical, and literary perpsectives to explore the definition of personal and communal spaces within medieval texts, the complex negotiation of the relationship between devotee and saint in both the early and the later Middle Ages, the forming of partnerships (symbolic, economic, devotional, etc.) between men and women across medieval Europe's considerable gender divide, and the ostracism of individuals and groups through various means including imprisonment, violence, and their identification with pollution. Contributors include: Diane Peters Auslander, Constance Hoffman Berman, Elizabeth A.R. Brown, Alexandra Cuffel, Anne M. Schuchman, Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Katherine Allen Smith, Kathryn A. Smith, Christina Roukis-Stern, Susan Valentine, Susan Wade, and Scott Wells.

V knjigi so zbrani prispevki z dveh mednarodnih konferenc, od katerih je eno organiziral ZRC SAZU septembra 1998 v Ljubljani. Zbornik je razdeljen na pet delov. V prvem z naslovom »Jeruzalem znotraj krščanske in občeslovanske tradicije« sodelujejo O. Belova, I. Kazovskaya, J. Krašovec, S. Tolstaya in E. Vereshchagin. V drugem »Jeruzalem in svet južnih Slovanov in Judov« so avtorji M. Frejdenberg, E. Holz, V. Nartnik, M. Nosić, D. Poniž, F. Premk, J. Rotar in Z. Šmitek. Avtorji prispevkov v tretjem delu »Jeruzalem in svet vzhodnih Slovanov« so A. Arkhipov, L. Calvi, G. Giraudo, P. Gonneau, L. Fialkova, Ja. Iluk, V. Khazan, V. Levin, Yu. Leving, V. Moskovich, J. Raba in A. Rogachevsky. V četrtem delu »Jeruzalem in svet zahodnih Slovanov« je en sam prispevek avtorja V. Bria in enako je v petem delu »Jeruzalem in sosedje Slovanov«, kjer je objavljen prispevek B. Levaia. Zbornik je večjezičen; dvanajst člankov je pisanih v angleščini, enajst v ruščini, dva v slovenščini in po eden v francoščini in ukrajinščini.