ed into their surroundings, and the maximum use of glass
brings nature into the sanctuary. Recent years have seen a
turning away from the monumentality of the nineteenth-
and twentieth-century edifices. Synagogue architecture in
America has become far less monumental, responding to a
current the focus on “spirituality” and “community.” The
central bimah has reappeared in liberal synagogues (and reas-
serted itself within Orthodox contexts), as more participato-
ry and less hierarchical liturgical forms have emerged.
SEE ALSO Judaism, overview article.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fine, Steven. Art and Judaism During the Greco-Roman Period: To-
ward a New “Jewish Archaeology.” Cambridge, 2005. In addi-
tion to presenting a liturgical analysis of ancient synagogue
remains and further reflection on the notion of synagogue
holiness, Fine discusses the significance of ideology and in-
fluence of ancient synagogue architecture in the construction
of American neoclassical synagogues.
Fine, Steven, ed. Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in
the Ancient World. New York, 1996. Essays by Fine, E. Mey-
ers, L. Rutgers, L. Feldman, R. Hachlili, and A. Shinan sur-
vey the history, literature and archaeology in the ancient
world.
Grossman, Susan, and Rivka Haut, eds. Daughters of the King:
Women in the Synagogue. New York, 1992. Essays in this vol-
ume discuss both the history of women’s participation in
synagogue life and more recent developments in North
American Jewish communities.
Gruber, Sam. “Archaeological Remains of Ashkenazic Jewry in
Europe: A New Source of Pride and History.” In What Ath-
ens Has to Do with Jerusalem: Essays in Classical, Jewish, and
Early Christian Archaeology in Honor of Gideon Foerster, ed.
L. Rutgers, pp. 267–301. Louvain, 2002. The most recent
and comprehensive study of archaeological remains of early
European synagogues.
Gruber, Sam. American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and
Jewish Community. New York, 2003. A general presentation
of the history and architecture of synagogues in America dur-
ing the twentieth century.
Gutmann, Joseph. The Jewish Sanctuary. Leiden, Netherlands,
- An introduction to the synagogue, its art and arch-
itecture.
Jarrassé, Dominique. Synagogues: Architecture and Jewish Identity.
Paris, 2001. This survey of synagogue architecture is refresh-
ing both because it is not focused on the United States, but
on synagogues of the Islamic world and Asia.
Krinsky, Carol H. Synagogues of Europe. New York, 1985. Krinsky
surveys the architectural history of the synagogue in Europe.
Lambert, Phyllis, ed. Fortifications and the Synagogue: The Fortress
of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo. Montreal,
- An in-depth study of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo,
this collection throws considerable light on the history of the
synagogue during the medieval and modern periods in the
lands of Islam.
Levine, L. I. The Synagogue: The First Thousand Years. New
Haven, Conn., 2000. A handbook for the study of the syna-
gogue from its origins to the rise of Islam.
Reif, Stefan C. Judaism and Hebrew Prayer. Cambridge, U.K.,- A survey of the history of Jewish prayer from its origins
to the modern period.
JOSEPH GUTMANN (1987)
STEVEN FINE (2005)
SYNCRETISM [FIRST EDITION]. The term syn-
cretism usually refers to connections of a special kind between
languages, cultures, or religions. This term is most frequently
used in the history of religions, where a special effort has
been made to give it a more precise meaning.
HISTORY AND USEFULNESS OF THE CONCEPT. The term
sugkr ̄etismos first occurs in Plutarch (Moralia 490ab). It was
probably based on sugkr ̄etos (Ionian form of sugkratos,
“mixed together”) and was explained by popular etymology
or by Plutarch himself as referring to the behavior of the Cre-
tans who, despite the discord habitual among them, closed
ranks when an external enemy attacked them. Early interpre-
tations, which reversed the relation between coinage and
meaning, may be left aside. Discussions of the term in the
Suda (4.451), the Etymologicum magnum (732.54f.), and
Erasmus’s Adagia (27) and Epistolae (3.539) are based on
Plutarch’s explanation, which was thus transmitted to the
modern period. Efforts at reconciliation between Molinists
and Thomists in the sixteenth century and between Luther-
ans and Calvinists in the seventeenth century can be criti-
cized as syncretist. The first application of the term to a situa-
tion in the history of religions probably ocurred in an
anonymous review (of an edition of Minucius Felix) that ap-
peared in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country (London,
1853, vol. 47, p. 294). Thereafter it appeared rather fre-
quently in the science of religion and historical theology of
the second half of the nineteenth century. Hermann Usener
(Götternamen, 1896; 1928, pp. 337–340) rendered it as
“mishmash of religions” (Religionsmischerei). In German,
Mischerei, unlike Mischung (“mixture, blending”), has nega-
tive overtones, and in fact Usener regarded the phenomenon
of syncretism as an unprincipled abandonment of the faith
of the Fathers, even though it was at the same time a neces-
sary transitional stage in the history of religions. Later on,
the word came to be used mostly without negative overtones,
but it continued to be applied in all sorts of ways.
As an explanatory category. Precise application makes
it clear that no definition of syncretism is possible without
a specific context and that the term cannot serve as an ade-
quate description of homogeneous sets of phenomena. It is
possible, nonetheless, to use the concept of syncretism as a
category of historico-genetic explanation. It makes possible
a critique of the Romantic ideological contrast between syn-
cretism and pure national tradition or, as the case may be,
uncontaminated popular religion. In addition, it is a useful
heuristic tool for tracking down otherwise hidden anteced-
ents of historical facts, as well as for identifying the phenom-
enon of syncretism itself as something (requiring later defini-8926 SYNCRETISM [FIRST EDITION]