The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia: Resistance and Resilience. By Tibebe Eshete . Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2009. Pp. xiv + 480. $59.95 (original) (raw)
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is probably one of the few historians in our time who is capable of taking a panoramic view of a timespan of two hundred years (1650-1850) and a huge geographical expanse, including all of Europe and the New World. The readers of this impressive and challenging book are invited to join in a journey through intellectual and political history for a close encounter with many extraordinary thinkers, some of whom are familiar and central, while others are peripheral and marginal, upon whom Israel justifiably seeks to shed new light. The book's subtitle presents its central thesis: these revolutionary Jews fought for exalted universal goalssecularization and liberation of the world from prejudice and clericalism, and comprehensive democratization. As Israel argues: "There is a need to identify, characterize and explain the modern revolutionary consciousness as it first emerged from the late seventeenth century onwards down towards the young Marx, a development noticeably gaining momentum down to the mid-nineteenth century" (5). Pursuing his long-range historiographical trend, Israel finds an enormously significant contribution to Western Civilization in the thinking of these Jews. Thus, he chooses a position external to Jewish history, paying less attention to its inner tendencies and development, including the bitter conflicts aroused by the challenge of modernization. Israel is an astoundingly prolific historian. His new book can be seen as another volume in his series on radical Enlightenment, which he began in 2001. His basic argument is that the father of radical Enlightenment was the Portuguese Jewish philosopher from Amsterdam, Benedict Spinoza, who was excommunicated by his community and denounced as the ultimate representative of heresy. Revolutionary Jews, which begins with Spinoza, traces a steady historical process continuing from him through other radical Enlightened Jews in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, concluding with Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Börne, Moses Hess, and Karl Marx. In the concluding chapters of the book, Israel seeks to show that the young Marx's radical ideas were influenced by the extensive tradition of radical Enlightenment. Along the way, Israel seeks to establish his claim that only radical Enlightenment could have brought about the emancipation of the Jews, since the conditions for it were democratic revolutions, social equality, equal political rights, and deep secularization. Replying to critics who maintain that Spinoza had little influence on Jewish history, Israel states that the attraction of Spinoza among the secular Jews of the nineteenth century might have been based on myth, but there is enough in Spinoza's thought to supply the foundation of secular and democratic Judaism, and, therefore, Spinoza should be seen as the archetype of the revolutionary Jew. Israel finds connections to Spinoza in every one of the heroes of his
Judaism, Enlightenment, and Ideology
Religions, 2021
The co-existence of Enlightenment and ideology has long vexed Jews in modernity. They have both loved and been leary of Enlightenment reason and its attending scientific and political institutions. Jews have also held a complex relationship to ideological forms that exist alongside Enlightenment reason and which have both lured and victimized them alike. Still, what accounts for this historical proximity between Enlightenment and ideology? and how does this relationship factor into the emergence of modern anti-Semitism? Can Jewish communities participate in contemporary societies committed to scientific developments and deliberative democracies and neither be targeted by totalizing systems of thought that eliminate Judaism’s difference nor fall prey to the power and seduction of ideological forces that compete with the Jewish life-world? This article argues that Hegel’s discussion of the Enlightenment in the Phenomenology of Spirit as a social practice of critical common sensism pro...
Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752
Intellectual History Review, 2010
With his latest book Enlightenment Contested, Jonathan Israel has made an impressive argument in favour of the view that philosophical ideas shape, or at least help to shape, human history. What ideas, however, does he have in mind? Israel brings forward a specific set of notions: 'toleration, personal freedom, democracy, equality racial and sexual, freedom of expression, sexual emancipation, and the universal right to knowledge and "enlightenment"' (p. 11) and argues that these are at the heart of what defines our system of modern Western values. At the same time, he maintains that we owe these ideas exclusively to a group of early modern 'Radical' thinkers, who first defended them on the basis of a combination of atheist and anti-authoritarian viewpoints closely linked to the philosophy of Spinoza. Despite its nearly 1000 pages, Israel's book fails to prove either of these latter theses, although it does deserve to attract the public and scholarly attention it is bound to receive. [2] Enlightenment Contested is remarkable for its scope and detailed presentation, as well as for the author's immense knowledge of primary and secondary sources. This may too easily go unnoticed, since readers of books such as The Dutch Republic (1995) and Radical Enlightenment (2001) have already become familiar with Israel's seemingly boundless erudition. As for its contents, Enlightenment Contested again has some marvellous new insights to offer. Even if these have not gone completely unnoticed before, Israel's presentation puts them into a new perspective. The idea of a radicalisation of positions in early eighteenth-century France, due to the absence of a broad movement of Enlightenment moderates, is an interesting view not found in Israel's earlier works. Other views invoke Israel's earlier position in Radical Enlightenment. The way, for instance, in which, on the authority of Pierre Bayle, Spinoza's philosophy was presented as a follow-up to ancient systems such as that of the philosopher Strato (c. 335-270 BC), and the debates surrounding the supposedly theistic core of Confucianism, reveal what issues were at stake in early eighteenth-century thought. [3] It is no exaggeration to say that Radical Enlightenment single-handedly reshaped, and Enlightenment Contested now confirms, some of our most basic
From the early 18th century until the end of the 19th, relatively small groups of young maskilim (followers of the Jewish Enlightenment) from Central and Eastern Europe wrought a signifi cant cultural revolution, one that was unprecedented in the Ashkenazi Diaspora. Th e appearance of the maskilim on the stage of Jewish history, as the representatives of a new intellectual elite who felt obligated to undertake the role of educating the public and providing alternative ideological leadership, augured a revolutionary move-the transfer of cultural sovereignty over the Jewish public space to new hands. An intellectual elite emerged to compete with the rabbinical, scholarly elite that held a complete monopoly over knowledge, books, cultural creation, education; supervised norms and behavior; and provided guidance to the public. Th is new elite adopted some of the basic values of the European Enlightenment culture, in particular humanism, religious tolerance, freedom of opinion, criticism, rationalism, and the consciousness of progress, and it regarded itself as responsible for reforming traditional society in the light of these values. Looking back, it seems as if the whole public culture of the Jews in the modern age-the book culture, the ideological debates, the new religious movements, modern politics, and the press as a forum of cultural and political discourse-all of these would not have been possible had it not been for that revolutionary breakthrough of a new Jewish intelligentsia. It was secular insofar as its source of authority and ideological fabric was concerned (albeit with a diverse spectrum of views regarding its commitment to religious tradition) and had at its center the writer, the modern Jewish intellectual. From a historical perspective, this new elite expanded cultural boundaries, raised acute questions about the place of Jews in modern Europe, and entered into a cultural confl ict with emerging Orthodox elite.
The historian of Jewish modernization is faced with the formidable challenge of recreating in all its vitality the dramatic and convoluted historical development that gave birth to the contemporary Jewish world. One of the most fascinating and telling areas to explore regarding the aspirations of the Jews to drastically alter their values, modes of thought, and collective future is that of the elite of maskilim (enlightened Jews). This book is devoted to the history of the eighteenth-century Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement, weaving it into the broad and prolonged story of the changes that affected the Jewish people in the modern era. It provides a wide-scope reconstruction of the historical development and its ideas, and describes the public storms and the initial shocks that attended modernization. The book opens in the early eighteenth century, with the story of several young men in European Ashkenazi society, who embarked on a conscious, deliberate course to change their cultural environment. They were motivated by a sense of intellectual inferiority, as well as by the strong desire to partake of the domains of knowledge of a cultural renaissance-the redemption of science and philosophy-the entrance to which had been denied them by those holding the keys to the traditional library. In relation to the state of knowledge and those who monopolized it, this was a subversive trend that began to break new ground for an alternative route. In the last quarter of the century, over a period of twenty years (-), this cultural trend crystallized into the Haskalah movement. With the intensification of the maskilim's revolutionary demands for an autonomous status and the right to speak out on current issues and to shape culture, the critical and modernist character of the Haskalah became clear. As soon as it did, the guardians of the existing order sounded an alarm, and an inevitable struggle ensued between the two competing elites-the rabbinical-traditional elite and the innovative maskilic elite with its liberal worldview. The front lines of the Jewish culture war, then, were already drawn. The unity of the pre-modern Jewish society, at least in the minds of its members, was shattered once and for all. In the history of Jewish culture, the modern era opened, marked by controversies, conflicts and schisms. When I entered the field of historical research, I was intrigued by the subject of the Haskalah movement. I realized that by attempting to fully under-xii Preface stand it and all its ramifications, the scholar and student would gain a compass for navigating the complex map of the various paths of modernization. The Haskalah is a dynamic phenomenon of transition from tradition to modernity, and its bearers are the maskilim. Each and every one of them experienced, in his own way, a profound cultural conversion. Hence one must try to comprehend the mind and soul of the maskil, his qualms, his rebelliousness, and his special traditional-secular language. Generations of research have greatly enriched the picture of the eighteenth century. The accepted model, which placed the Haskalah in Germany and Moses Mendelssohn at the epicenter of the changes of the modern era, has been undermined, since the formulation of other and different models of modernization, in which the movement is not seen as the agent of change, such as the model of the Sephardi diaspora in Western Europe, ''Port Jews'' in Italian Trieste, or British Jewry. My intent in this book is to show that, despite this, the value of the Haskalah should not be underestimated. On the contrary, the enlightenment movement led by the maskilim in Europe represented the conscious process of modernization and signified the point of departure of the major trends in i n t e l l e c t u a lh i s t o r ya n di nt h eh i s t o r yo ft h eJ e w i s hp u b l i cs p h e r ef r o mt h e eighteenth century and thereafter. In my previous book, Haskalah and History, I attempted to prove that the ideology of the Haskalah was responsible for a series of manipulations of the past in all of the movement's metamorphoses, in particular in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe. That book centered on one of the most influential inventions of the Haskalah-the ''modern age'' in Jewish culture. The historical space of the present book is confined to the eighteenth century. It describes in detail-and I hope with the sensitivity it merits-the process in which the modern and secular intellectual elite came into being. I was faced with three main tasks in writing this book. The first was to uncover new historical sources that would enable me to paint a complete picture of the Haskalah movement. By examining letters, contemporary newspapers, documentary material spread throughout the issues of Hame'asef, unknown manuscripts, neglected figures, and forgotten books, I was able to present as full a picture as possible, and on more than one occasion to observe the maskilim from a variety of vantage points: through their self-consciousness and their experiential worlds, through the eyes of their adversaries and through the testimony of observers outside of Jewish society. My second task was to reinterpret the Haskalah movement and to explain its historical significance. To a large extent, I was inspired by the insights offered by the recent research on the European Enlightenment and was helped by freeing myself of the perception of the Haskalah as a movement of German Jewry only. I felt it was particularly important to properly present the role
The Politics of Enlightenment: From Peter Gay to Jonathan Israel
The Historical Journal
According to the textbook version of history, the Enlightenment played a crucial role in the creation of the modern, liberal democracies of the West. Ever since this view – which we might describe as the modernization thesis – was first formulated by Peter Gay, it has been repeatedly criticized as misguided: a myth. Yet, as this paper shows, it continues to survive in postwar historiography, in particular in the Anglophone world. Indeed, Gay's most important and influential successors – historians such as Robert Darnton and Roy Porter – all ended up defending the idea that the Enlightenment was a major force in the creation of modern democratic values and institutions. More recently, Jonathan Israel's trilogy on the Enlightenment has revived the modernization thesis, albeit in a dramatic new form. Yet, even Israel's work, as its critical reception highlights, does not convincingly demonstrate that the Enlightenment, as an intellectual movement, contributed in any meaningful way to the creation of modern political culture. This conclusion raises a new question: if the Enlightenment did not create our modern democracies, then what did it do? In answer to that question, this paper suggests that we should take more seriously the writings of enlightened monarchists like Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger. Studying the Enlightenment might not allow us to understand why democratic political culture came into being. But, as Boulanger's work underscores, it might throw light on an equally important problem: why democracy came so late in the day.