Voltaire's Jews and Modern Jewish Identity: Rethinking the Enlightenment / Edition 1

by Harvey Mitchell

Overview

Harvey Mitchell’s book argues that a reassessment of Voltaire’s treatment of traditional Judaism will sharpen discussion of the origins of, and responses to, the Enlightenment. His study shows how Voltaire’s nearly total antipathy to Judaism is best understood by stressing his self-regard as the author of an enlightened and rational universal history, which found Judaism’s memory of its past incoherent, and, in addition, failed to meet the criteria of objective history—a project in which he failed.

Calling on an array of Jewish and non-Jewish figures to reveal how modern interpretations of Judaism may be traced to the core ideas of the Enlightenment, this book concludes that Voltaire paradoxically helped to foster the ambiguities and uncertainties of Judaism’s future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415776172
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/09/2008
Series:	Routledge Jewish Studies Series , #27
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Harvey Mitchell is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of British Columbia, Canada

Table of Contents

Introduction: Enlightenment and its Discontents Part 1 1. Spinoza, Bayle and Voltaire: Issues in Contention 2. Images, Imagination, Tolerance and the Uses of Reason 3. Voltaire’s Jews Among the World’s Peoples and Nations 4. Voltaire’s Jews in the World of Commerce 5. Voltaire and the Old Testament Part 2 6. Reinventing French Judaism and Rethinking the Enlightenment 7. Modern Jewish Identity and the Jewish Question: The Power of Ancestral Voices in a Post-Enlightenment Age 8. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Mitchell masterfully critiques published work from early modern Europe to date... An excellent addition to Routledge's Jewish Studies series. Summing up: Highly recommended." — Choice

'Mitchell masterfully critiques published work from early modern Europe to date. He makes a good case for ranking Spinoza as a premier Enlightenment thinker, and for revising textbooks to include Dutch Jewish economist Isaac de Pinto.]...[An excellent addition to Routledge's Jewish Studies series. Highly recommended.' - Choice, July 2009

From the Publisher