Marrano discourse shifted Jewish-Christian debate from theology to race and culture

Evidence

The origins of this reformulation of Jewish discourse can be traced back to the early modern period, following the expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims from Spain and the origins of the Marranos. It was then that the Jewish-Muslim link, which had been first made earlier in the Middle Ages, was cast in terms of an ethnic and a religious difference. The discourse generated by the question of the Marranos who maintained or were perceived to maintain Jewish qualities despite conversion to Christianity, marked the transition from theological discourse and Christian-Jewish disputation to a discourse based on notions of ethnicity, race, and culture. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 629

Categorization

• QUESTION: The passage asserts the Marrano question triggered the shift to racial/ethnic discourse — worth chasing the specific texts of that polemic.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the immodesty/cross-cultural moral panics essay in that both trace modern identity discourse to early modern Spain and the Muslim-Jewish entanglement.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 629