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.
| ISBN: | 9780521672320 |
| Publication date: | 10th November 2005 |
| Author: | Adam University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign Sutcliffe |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 338 pages |
| Series: | Ideas in Context |
| Genres: |
Judaism History of ideas |
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 features in the following genres: Judaism, History of ideas
Judaism and Enlightenment is available in Paperback, Hardback
Judaism and Enlightenment was written by Adam University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign Sutcliffe and published by Cambridge University Press
Judaism and Enlightenment has 338 pages
Yes it is part of Ideas in Context series
£33.30