Judaism and the Politics of Enlightenment

Bibliographic Data

ID3758057
AuthorsAdam Sutcliffe (0009-0006-8342-0140, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume49
Issue5
Pages702-715
Publication date2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764205282219
OpenAlexW1967626206
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited21

This article explores the political and philosophical significance of Judaism in the thought of the European Enlightenment and the resonance of these debates in Western thought since the 18th century. Judaism and the Jews persistently served as a troublesome limit case, a destabilizing challenge, and a probing test for enlightenment rationalism. Attempts to divide the Enlightenment into "anti-Semitic" and "philosemitic" strands are doomed to failure; rather, the intellectual relationship is inescapably complex and unstable. Because of this, Judaism can provide a unique bulwark against univocal rationalist authoritarianism

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Judaism · Political science · Politics · Rationalism · Sociology · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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