The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century

The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century PDF Author: Coudert
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004679146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
"If he had lived among the Greeks, he would now be numbered among the stars." So wrote Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his epitaph for Francis Mercury van Helmont. Leibniz was not the only contemporary to admire and respect van Helmont, but although famous in his own day, he has been virtually ignored by modern historians. Yet his views influenced Leibniz, contributed to the development of modern science, and fostered the kind of ecumenicalism that made the concept of toleration conceivable. The progressive nature of van Helmont's thought was based on his deep commitment to the esoteric doctrines of the Lurianic Kabbalah. With his friend Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, van Helmont edited the Kabbala Denudata (1677-1684), the largest collection of Lurianic Kabbalistic texts available to Christians up to that time. Because the subject matter of this work appears so difficult and arcane, it has never been appreciated as a significant text for understanding the emergence of modern thought. However, one can find in it the basis for the faith in science, the belief in progress, and the pluralism characteristic of later western thought. The Lurianic Kabbalah thus deserves a place it has never received in histories of western scientific and cultural developments. Although van Helmont's efforts contributed to the development of religious toleration, his experience as a prisoner of the Inquisition accused of "Judaising" reveals the problematic relations between Christians and Jews during the early-modern period. New Inquisitional documents relating to van Helmont's imprisonment will be discussed to illustrate the difficulties faced by anyone advocating philo-semitism and toleration at the time.

The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century

The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century PDF Author: Allison Coudert
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004098442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
If he had lived among the Greeks, he would now be numbered among the stars. So wrote Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his epitaph for Francis Mercury van Helmont. With his friend Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, van Helmont edited the Kabbala Denudata (1677-1684), the largest collection of Lurianic Kabbalistic texts available to Christians up to that time. Because the subject matter of this work appears so difficult and arcane, it has never been appreciated as a significant text for understanding the emergence of modern thought. However, one can find in it the basis for the faith in science, the belief in progress, and the pluralism characteristic of later western thought. The Lurianic Kabbalah thus deserves a place it has never received in histories of western scientific and cultural developments.

The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century

The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century PDF Author: Coudert
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004679146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Get Book Here

Book Description
"If he had lived among the Greeks, he would now be numbered among the stars." So wrote Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his epitaph for Francis Mercury van Helmont. Leibniz was not the only contemporary to admire and respect van Helmont, but although famous in his own day, he has been virtually ignored by modern historians. Yet his views influenced Leibniz, contributed to the development of modern science, and fostered the kind of ecumenicalism that made the concept of toleration conceivable. The progressive nature of van Helmont's thought was based on his deep commitment to the esoteric doctrines of the Lurianic Kabbalah. With his friend Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, van Helmont edited the Kabbala Denudata (1677-1684), the largest collection of Lurianic Kabbalistic texts available to Christians up to that time. Because the subject matter of this work appears so difficult and arcane, it has never been appreciated as a significant text for understanding the emergence of modern thought. However, one can find in it the basis for the faith in science, the belief in progress, and the pluralism characteristic of later western thought. The Lurianic Kabbalah thus deserves a place it has never received in histories of western scientific and cultural developments. Although van Helmont's efforts contributed to the development of religious toleration, his experience as a prisoner of the Inquisition accused of "Judaising" reveals the problematic relations between Christians and Jews during the early-modern period. New Inquisitional documents relating to van Helmont's imprisonment will be discussed to illustrate the difficulties faced by anyone advocating philo-semitism and toleration at the time.

Jews in the Early Modern World

Jews in the Early Modern World PDF Author: Dean Phillip Bell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742545182
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Jews in the Early Modern World presents a comparative and global history of the Jews for the early modern period, 1400-1700. It traces the remarkable demographic changes experienced by Jews around the globe and assesses the impact of those changes on Jewish communal and social structures, religious and cultural practices, and relations with non-Jews.

Jews and Muslims in Seventeenth-Century Discourse

Jews and Muslims in Seventeenth-Century Discourse PDF Author: Gary K. Waite
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351108972
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Jews and Muslims in Seventeenth-Century Discourse explores for the first time the extent to which the unusual religious diversity and tolerance of the Dutch Republic affected how its residents regarded Jews and Muslims. Analyzing an array of vernacular publications, this book reveals how Dutch writers, especially those within the nonconformist and spiritualist camps, expressed positive attitudes toward religious diversity in general, and Jews and Muslims in particular. Through covering the Eighty Years War (1568-1648) and the post-war era, it also highlights how the Dutch search for allies against Spain led them to approach Muslim rulers. The Dutch were assisted in this by their positive relations with Jews, and were thus able to shape a more affirmative portrayal of Islam. Revealing noticeable differences in language and tone between English and Dutch publications and exploring societal attitudes and culture, Jews and Muslims in Seventeenth-Century Discourse is ideal for students of British and Dutch early-modern cultural, intellectual, and religious history.

British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century

British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century PDF Author: Sarah Hutton
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019105951X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Sarah Hutton presents a rich historical study of one of the most fertile periods in modern philosophy. It was in the seventeenth century that Britain's first philosophers of international stature and lasting influence emerged. Its most famous names, Hobbes and Locke, rank alongside the greatest names in the European philosophical canon. Bacon too belongs with this constellation of great thinkers, although his status as a philosopher tends to be obscured by his status as father of modern science. The seventeenth century is normally regarded as the dawn of modernity following the breakdown of the Aristotelian synthesis which had dominated intellectual life since the middle ages. In this period of transformational change, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke are acknowledged to have contributed significantly to the shape of European philosophy from their own time to the present day. But these figures did not work in isolation. Sarah Hutton places them in their intellectual context, including the social, political and religious conditions in which philosophy was practised. She treats seventeenth-century philosophy as an ongoing conversation: like all conversations, some voices will dominate, some will be more persuasive than others and there will be enormous variations in tone from the polite to polemical, matter-of-fact, intemperate. The conversation model allows voices to be heard which would otherwise be discounted. Hutton shows the importance of figures normally regarded as 'minor' players in philosophy (e.g. Herbert of Cherbury, Cudworth, More, Burthogge, Norris, Toland) as well as others who have been completely overlooked, notably female philosophers. Crucially, instead of emphasizing the break between seventeenth-century philosophy and its past, the conversation model makes it possible to trace continuities between the Renaissance and seventeenth century, across the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century, while at the same time acknowledging the major changes which occurred.

The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book (2 vols.)

The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book (2 vols.) PDF Author: Marvin J. Heller
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004189564
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1604

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Book Description
The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book is an encyclopedic, bibliographic work describing books printed with Hebrew letters in that century. It records and describes the authors, publishers, and printers of Hebrew books, as well as the books themselves. Similar to the author’s other work, The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book, it covers the gamut of Hebrew literature, encompassing liturgical works, Bibles, commentaries, Talmud, Mishnah, halakhic codes, kabbalistic works, and fables. There are 691 entries comprised of a descriptive text page, background on the author, a description of the book’s contents and physical makeup, all of which are accompanied by reproductions of the title or sample pages. There is an extensive introduction with an overview of Hebrew printing in the seventeenth century, as well as detailed back matter. It is a necessary work for bibliographers, historians, and students of Jewish literature.

The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy

The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy PDF Author: Anne Conway
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521479042
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Translated for the first time into modern English, Anne Conway's book is the most interesting and original philosophical work written by a woman in the 17th century. This fully annotated edition includes a chronology of her life

The Cultural Study of Yiddish in Early Modern Europe

The Cultural Study of Yiddish in Early Modern Europe PDF Author: J. Frakes
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137046554
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
A unique analysis of the intensive interest in Jewish culture of early modern Christian Humanists as a part of their comprehensive program of study of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. The book focuses on how that interest was particularly manifested in a score of treatises on Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Yiddish language and literature.

Between Worlds

Between Worlds PDF Author: J. H. Chajes
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812201558
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
After a nearly two-thousand-year interlude, and just as Christian Europe was in the throes of the great Witch Hunt and what historians have referred to as "The Age of the Demoniac," accounts of spirit possession began to proliferate in the Jewish world. Concentrated at first in the Near East but spreading rapidly westward, spirit possession, both benevolent and malevolent, emerged as perhaps the most characteristic form of religiosity in early modern Jewish society. Adopting a comparative historical approach, J. H. Chajes uncovers this strain of Jewish belief to which scant attention has been paid. Informed by recent research in historical anthropology, Between Worlds provides fascinating descriptions of the cases of possession as well as analysis of the magical techniques deployed by rabbinic exorcists to expel the ghostly intruders. Seeking to understand the phenomenon of spirit possession in its full complexity, Chajes delves into its ideational framework—chiefly the doctrine of reincarnation—while exploring its relation to contemporary Christian and Islamic analogues. Regarding spirit possession as a form of religious expression open to—and even dominated by—women, Chajes initiates a major reassessment of women in the history of Jewish mysticism. In a concluding section he examines the reception history of the great Hebrew accounts of spirit possession, focusing on the deployment of these "ghost stories" in the battle against incipient skepticism in the turbulent Jewish community of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Exploring a phenomenon that bridged learned and ignorant, rich and poor, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, Between Worlds maps for the first time a prominent feature of the early modern Jewish religious landscape, as quotidian as it was portentous: the nexus of the living and the dead.

Reformation and Early Modern Europe

Reformation and Early Modern Europe PDF Author: David M. Whitford
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1935503642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 619

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Book Description
Continuing the tradition of historiographic studies, this volume provides an update on research in Reformation and early modern Europe. Written by expert scholars in the field, these eighteen essays explore the fundamental points of Reformation and early modern history in religious studies, European regional studies, and social and cultural studies. Authors review the present state of research in the field, new trends, key issues scholars are working with, and fundamental works in their subject area, including the wide range of electronic resources now available to researchers. Reformation and Early Modern Europe: A Guide to Research is a valuable resource for students and scholars of early modern Europe.