Isidore framed the church as reasonable convocation against Judaism as herd-like congregation.

Evidence

If Isidore’s “proofs” of Christian doctrine strike the modern reader as singularly unconvincing, such belief in the logical necessity of Christian doctrine is part of his fight for Catholic unity against doubt and division. The unconverted Jews represented doubt incarnate; their very existence threatened Isidore’s triumphant vision of Catholic history. Thus Isidore had to present the Jews’ refusal to accept a Christian reading of the Old Testament as illogical, “hard of heart.” … Indeed our Apostles never said “synagogue” (synagoga) but always “church” (ecclesia), either in order to distinguish between the two or because there is a difference between a congregation (where the word synagogue comes from) and a convocation (whence the word church). For as sheep tend to congregate (congregari), whence we speak of flocks (greges), to be convoked is more fitting for those who use reason, as do men. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 142

Categorization

• XREF: Roots of the reason-vs-carnality and reason-vs-unthinking-mass genderings that the vault’s vault Anidjar/Aziz claims trace into modern Islamophobia and anti-Muslim framing.
• DEEPTHINKING: A word-level etymological distinction doing heavy ideological work: the mosque/church becomes the place of reasoned ‘convocation’ while the synagogue (and later, by transfer, the mosque assembly) is mere animal congregation — the very grammar later medieval polemic reuses against Islam.