Fellowship Report

As a senior fellow at MagEIA, my Jewish studies research project focused on performative haptic acts in late antique Jewish and Christian healing spells. The term performative haptic act, which I introduced in analogy to performative speech act (see my article in: A Touch of Doubt: On Haptic Scepticism, ed. by Rachel Aumiller, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 105-121) served as a leitmotif in the analysis of source texts and in the development of a related theory.

I began by collecting source texts that attest to iatro-magical ritual practices in which the physical touch of a healer on the sick person constitutes the actual source of power. The source texts I used include primarily the Hebrew Bible, apocrypha, texts from Qumran, the New Testament, rabbinical literature, but also Greek and Latin texts as well as Greek and Coptic magic papyri. The source texts were evaluated comparatively, highlighting not only structural similarities, such as the ritual connection with speech acts, but also differences, e.g., historical or culture-specific ones.

I then studied preliminary theoretical work relevant to my task. These include older works, such as James Frazer's on the concept of contagious magic or Max Weber's on charismatic rule. In addition, speech act theories (Austin, Searle, Habermas) were consulted. Of the older works, Marc Bloch's monograph “Les rois thaumaturges” (1924) by Marc Bloch on medieval and modern miracle healings by French and English kings proved to be particularly insightful, as the ritualized healing of scrofula through royal touch is based on concepts of holiness that are also found in the source texts I selected. Starting from these well-known classics of research history, more recent research contributions (e.g., Argyle, Csordas, Hezser, Csepregi/Burnett, Nutzman, etc.) were included, particularly with regard to their usefulness for the desired theory formation. The desired theory formation was carried out methodically in constant interaction with a close reading of the source texts in order to avoid a situation where the theory is coherent but no longer applicable to the philological evidence. The individual elements of performative haptic acts were terminologically differentiated using this theory and functionalized for analytical questions.

The highlight of my stay was the one-day workshop on performative haptic acts that I organized, which took place on July 28, 2025. Not only did the principal investigators and staff of MagEIA participate, but to my great delight, I was able to invite two external scholars, Emma Abate (Bologna/Ravenna) and David Rotman (Jerusalem), to come to Würzburg specifically for the workshop. A volume containing both the contributions from the workshop and three additional guest contributions is planned for publication in the MagEIA publication series in 2026.

Of course, I participated in the weekly colloquia and presented Hebrew source texts from the Jewish tradition (Sefer ha-Razim II) for discussion in two sessions. In addition, there were opportunities to get to know each other better and build team spirit, such as a wine tasting, a visit to the Schalom Museum in Würzburg, and an excursion to Veitshöchheim. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all my colleagues at MagEIA. My fellowship was one of the most inspiring and fruitful experiences of my professional life