Judaism and Enlightenment

Judaism and Enlightenment PDF Author: Adam Sutcliffe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521672320
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study investigates the philosophical and political significance of Judaism in the intellectual life of seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. Adam Sutcliffe shows how the widespread and enthusiastic fascination with Judaism prevalent around 1650 was largely eclipsed a century later by attitudes of dismissal and disdain. He argues that Judaism was uniquely difficult for Enlightenment thinkers to account for, and that their intense responses, both negative and positive, to Jewish topics are central to an understanding of the underlying ambiguities of the Enlightenment itself. Judaism and the Jews were a limit case, a destabilising challenge, and a constant test for Enlightenment rationalism. Erudite and highly broad-ranging in its sources, and yet extremely accessible in its argument, Judaism and Enlightenment is a major contribution to the history of European ideas, of interest to scholars of Jewish history and to those working on the Enlightenment, toleration and the emergence of modernity itself.

Judaism and Enlightenment

Judaism and Enlightenment PDF Author: Adam Sutcliffe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521672320
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study investigates the philosophical and political significance of Judaism in the intellectual life of seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe. Adam Sutcliffe shows how the widespread and enthusiastic fascination with Judaism prevalent around 1650 was largely eclipsed a century later by attitudes of dismissal and disdain. He argues that Judaism was uniquely difficult for Enlightenment thinkers to account for, and that their intense responses, both negative and positive, to Jewish topics are central to an understanding of the underlying ambiguities of the Enlightenment itself. Judaism and the Jews were a limit case, a destabilising challenge, and a constant test for Enlightenment rationalism. Erudite and highly broad-ranging in its sources, and yet extremely accessible in its argument, Judaism and Enlightenment is a major contribution to the history of European ideas, of interest to scholars of Jewish history and to those working on the Enlightenment, toleration and the emergence of modernity itself.

The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law

The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law PDF Author: Christine Hayes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036151
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Judaism and Law provides a conceptual and historical account of the Jewish understanding of law.

Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key

Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key PDF Author: David B. Ruderman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691187487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
Historians of the European Jewish experience have long marginalized the intellectual achievement of Jews in England, where it was assumed no seminal figures contributed to the development of modern Jewish thought. In this first comprehensive account of the emergence of Anglo-Jewish thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, David Ruderman impels a reconsideration of the formative beginnings of modern European Jewish culture. He uncovers a vibrant Jewish intellectual life in England during the Enlightenment era by examining a small but fascinating group of hitherto neglected Jewish thinkers in the process of transforming their traditional Hebraic culture into a modern English one. This lively portrait of English Jews reformulating their tradition in light of Enlightenment categories illuminates an overlooked corner in the history of Jewish culture in England and Jewish thought during the Enlightenment. Ruderman overturns the conventional view that the origins of modern Jewish consciousness are located exclusively within the German-Jewish experience, particularly Moses Mendelssohn's circle. Independent of the better-known German experience, the encounter between Jewish and English thought was incubated amid the unprecedented freedom enjoyed by Jews in England. This resulted in a less inhibited defense of Jews and Judaism. In addition to the original and prolific thinkers David Levi and Abraham Tang, Ruderman introduces Abraham and Joshua Van Oven, Mordechai Shnaber Levison, Samuel Falk, Isaac Delgado, Solomon Bennett, Hyman Hurwitz, Emanuel Mendes da Costa, Ralph Shomberg, and others. Of obvious appeal and import to students of Jewish and English history, this study depicts the challenge of defining a religious identity in the modern age.

No Religion Without Idolatry

No Religion Without Idolatry PDF Author: Gideon Freudenthal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780268206635
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
No Religion without Idolatry offers an interpretation of Mendelssohn's general philosophy and discusses for the first time his semiotic interpretation of idolatry in his commentaries.

Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity

Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity PDF Author: Harvey Mitchell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415776171
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book Harvey Mitchell re-examines the nature of Voltaire's hostility by analyzing the Enlightenment, its role as a source of modern Anti-Semitism, and its shaping of modern Jewish identity.

Radical Enlightenment

Radical Enlightenment PDF Author: Jonathan Irvine Israel
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198206089
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 848

Get Book Here

Book Description
Readership: Readers with an interest in the European Enlightenment; intellectual and cultural historians; scholars and students of philosophy.

Moses Mendelssohn and the Enlightenment

Moses Mendelssohn and the Enlightenment PDF Author: Allan Arkush
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791495264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Moses Mendelssohn, the author of numerous works on natural theology and ethics, was also the first modern philosopher of Judaism. This book places Mendelssohn's thought within the context of the Leibnizian-Wolffian school, the writings of Kant and Lessing and other major figures of the Enlightenment, and within the age-old tradition of Jewish rationalism. More than any previous treatment of this subject, it questions the extent to which Mendelssohn truly succeeded in reconciling his allegiance to the philosophy of the Enlightenment with his adherence to Judaism.

Sara Levy's World

Sara Levy's World PDF Author: Rebecca Cypess
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1580469213
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
A rich interdisciplinary exploration of the world of Sara Levy, a Jewish salonnière and skilled performing musician in late eighteenth-century Berlin, and her impact on the Bach revival, German-Jewish life, and Enlightenment culture.

Cultural Revolution in Berlin

Cultural Revolution in Berlin PDF Author: Shmuel Feiner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781851242917
Category : Berlin (Germany)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The process of secularization, which is one of the sources of present-day democracy, has its radical origins in eighteenth-century Europe. Criticism of religious norms and discipline, institutions and ideology led to the movement known as the Enlightenment. Its Jewish protagonists (the maskilim), a young intellectual elite, undertook the role of culturally revolutionizing eighteenth-century Jewish society. They aimed at overturning the monopolistic control of rabbinic scholars over education, publications, and social behaviour in favour of secular intellectual values. They sought to promote political rights and religious tolerance, embraced humanism, rationalism, and freedom of opinion. In turn, the end of Jewish isolation brought about a significant contribution to philosophy, science, and art, and participation in the culture of modern European society.This introduction to the emergence of Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) in Germany pays special attention to its most famous figure, Moses Mendelssohn, who was active at the centre of the Enlightenment in Berlin. The volume is richly illustrated with images of eighteenth-century manuscripts, books, and pamphlets, some of which are published here for the first time, and which derive from a collection assembled by the famous nineteenth-century scholar Leopold Zunz. This is an attractive book providing an excellent guide to the major cultural metamorphosis represented by Jewish Enlightenment.

Torah As a Guide to Enlightenment

Torah As a Guide to Enlightenment PDF Author: Gabriel Cousens
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781947925458
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Inspired by intense studies, meditation, and a variety of teachings from the great Torah sages, best-selling author Gabriel Cousens, MD, presents the fifty-two parashas of the Torah as a practical path to liberation. His interpretation, which focuses on enlightenment, what he feels is the original intention of the Torah, provides a multidimensional analysis and a perspective that is often missing from conventional teachings. Torah as a Guide to Enlightenment conveys liberation understandings not only to those with Jewish and Christian backgrounds, but to anyone seeking to reconnect with their spiritual roots.