[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-38849-en":3,"doc-seo-38849-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},38849,1099513958762,"Logic","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1000023916a998db790?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1782109480056885918",8,"Research & Report","Convivencia in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea","Convivencia denotes the coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in medieval Spain and the cultural exchange produced by their proximity. The term emerged from Américo Castro’s 1948 controversial thesis on Spanish historical identity, but it has since broadened amid growing attention to multiculturalism and fears of religiously framed violence. Social-scientific models help explain acculturation mechanisms and reduce romanticized readings of convivencia.","Religion Compass 3/1 (2009): 72–85, 10. 1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00119.x  \nConvivencia in Medieval Spain: A Brief History of an Idea  \nKenneth Baxter Wolf* Pomona College  \nAbstract  \nConvivencia refers to the ‘coexistence’ of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in medieval Spain and by extension the cultural interaction and exchange fostered by such proximity. The term first appeared as part of a controversial thesis about Spanish historical identity advanced by Américo Castro in 1948. Since then interest in the idea of convivencia has spread, fueled in part by increased attention to multi-culturalism and rising concern about religiously framed acts of violence. The application of social scientific models has gone a long way toward clarifying the mechanisms of acculturation at work in medieval Spain and tempering the tendency to romanticize convivencia.  \nConvivencia refers to the ‘coexistence’ of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in medieval Spain and by extension the cultural interaction and exchange fostered by such proximity. While it first emerged as part of a famous debate about Spanish historical identity that punctuated the Franco years, the notion that these three religious communities got along better in medieval Spain than they did at other times and in other places is older than that. The nineteenth century witnessed both the Romantic fascination with Muslim Spain epitomized by Washington Irving and the more scholarly projects of French and Spanish Arabists, who saw in the cosmopolitan culture of Muslim Spain the antithesis of Christian Spain, past and present (López-Lázaro unpublished, p. 17) . At the same time, Jews in Central Europe who were fascinated by the heights achieved by their Sephardic counterparts in medieval Spain tended to credit, among other factors, an unusually high level of tolerance on the part of the Andalusian authorities. True or not, such claims helped Jewish apologists put in greater relief the poor track record of modern European governments in the years preceding emancipation (Cohen 1991) .  \nIt was the Spanish philologist and literary historian Américo Castro (1885–1972) who first used the term convivencia as part ofthe controversial theory about Spanish cultural identity that he launched in his España en su historia: cristianos, moros, y judíos (Buenos Aires, 1948) .1 Like so many  \n© 2008 The Author  \nJournal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd  \nConvivencia in Medieval Spain 73  \nother Spanish intellectuals grappling with the legacy of the Generation of 1898, Castro was intent on explaining the ‘enigma’ of modern Spain, which seemed at the time so hopelessly out of step with the rest of Europe (Castro 1948, pp. 17–24; Gómez-Martínez 1975, pp. 13–33) . But unlike other peninsular scholars, Castro refused to evaluate Spanish history using criteria – such as political liberalism or technological innovation – that had been chosen with more ‘successful’ countries like France, England, and Germany in mind (Araya Goubet 1976, pp. 41–4, 50) . Having identified what he saw as a particularly Spanish propensity for self-doubt and insecurity despite a history filled with singularly impressive achievements, Castro turned to the past in an effort to lay bare its roots. His search led him to posit the existence of a distinctively Spanish ‘structure of life’(estructura vital or morada vital) that informed modern Spanish history, a‘mesh of interconnected values’ that, Castro came to believe, was the product of the unique blending of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultural elements that took place between the late eleventh and the late fourteenth centuries2 (Castro 1948, pp. 23, 25–6, 39; Castro 1954, pp. 31, 33–4, 46, 4, n. 2; Araya Goubet 1976, pp. 54–6) . The bulk of Castro’s magnum opus is dedicated to a series of micro-studies meant to illustrate the pervasiveness of Andalusian Muslim and Jewish influence on Castilian culture. Castro predictably gave pride of place to language a","cbCaisqMcYfoCI3H","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisqMcYfoCI3H","pdf",145114,1,14,"English","en",105,"# Convivencia: meaning and significance\n## Origins of the concept in historical debates\n# Historical roots before Castro\n## Nineteenth-century romantic and scholarly perspectives\n# Castro’s theory and its focus\n## Spanish identity, estructura vital, and cultural blending","[{\"question\":\"What does convivencia mean in the context of medieval Spain?\",\"answer\":\"Convivencia refers to the coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in medieval Spain and the cultural interaction and exchange fostered by their proximity.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Américo Castro contribute to the concept of convivencia?\",\"answer\":\"Castro first used convivencia as part of a controversial theory about Spanish cultural identity in his 1948 work, linking modern Spain’s identity to a unique blending of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish elements.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does research using social-scientific models matter for understanding convivencia?\",\"answer\":\"Applying social scientific models clarifies the mechanisms of acculturation and helps temper the tendency to romanticize convivencia.\"}]",1783073982,35,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"convivencia-in-medieval-spain-a-brief-history-of-an-idea","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/convivencia-in-medieval-spain-a-brief-history-of-an-idea/38849/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-08","2026-07-03",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What does convivencia mean in the context of medieval Spain?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Convivencia refers to the coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in medieval Spain and the cultural interaction and exchange fostered by their proximity.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How did Américo Castro contribute to the concept of convivencia?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Castro first used convivencia as part of a controversial theory about Spanish cultural identity in his 1948 work, linking modern Spain’s identity to a unique blending of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish elements.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"Why does research using social-scientific models matter for understanding convivencia?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Applying social scientific models clarifies the mechanisms of acculturation and helps temper the tendency to romanticize 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