ABSTRACT
This chapter offers reflections on the dynamics of Jewish renaissance and renewal in the twelfth century as a framework within which to place not only such important narratives as the Hebrew accounts of 1096, but also the various other creative achievements that different elites in the medieval Jewish and Christian cultures produced in the twelfth century. Isadore Twersky pointed to the flowering of different modes of culture that appeared in separate centers in the twelfth century by focusing on the relationship among various medieval Jewish cultural developments and the place of law in Jewish culture. The shared dynamic in both Latin and Hebrew cultures contributed to a stronger sense of the individual will and thereby to increased religious defensiveness and hostility, both of which are central features of the renaissance and renewal of twelfth-century spirituality and society.
