The Evangelical Counter-Enlightenment: From Ecstasy to Fundamentalism in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in the 18th Century

ISBN-13: 9783030697648 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

William R. Everdell

Opis

This contribution to the global history of ideas uses biographical profiles of 18th-century contemporaries to find what Salafist and Sufi Islam, Evangelical Protestant and Jansenist Catholic Christianity, and Hasidic Judaism have in common. Such figures include Muḥammad Ibn abd al-Waḥhab, Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Israel Ba’al Shem Tov. The book is a unique and comprehensive study of the conflicted relationship between the “evangelical” movements in all three Abrahamic religions and the ideas of the Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment. Centered on the 18th century, the book reaches back to the third century for precedents and context, and forward to the 21st for the legacy of these movements. This text appeals to students and researchers in many fields, including Philosophy and Religion, their histories, and World History, while also appealing to the interested lay reader.

Recenzje

"The book is faultlessly well organized." (J. E. May, The Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer, Vol. 35 (2), October, 2021)

Spis treści

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION:

Revival in Jefferson’s Virginia; Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment; Religion as Ecstatic Experience and Religion as Morality 

Chapter 2: The Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment I: Zinzendorf and the Moravians 

Chapter 3: Christian Antecedents: Zinzendorf from Spener’s Pietist Protestantism, Lutheran Protestantism, Luther’s awake^Augustine>Calvin>Edwards 

Chapter 4: The Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment II: Jonathan Edwards and the Atlantic Great Awakening. Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment in one. 

Edwards from Calvinist Protestantism, and the “grace” of Edwards, Wesley and Whitefield. 

Chapter 5: The Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment III: John Wesley, George Whitefield, Me^> Whitefield vs Wesley. 

Chapter 6: The Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment IV: Jansenist Convulsionaries. 

Catholic Christianity, too. Hildegarde of Bingen 12thC, Mechthild, Porete & Julian 13thC. Post-Reformation Catholic mysticism, Jansenius’s return to Augustine. Zinzendorf again and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Chapter 7: Jewish Antecedents and the Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment V: The Baal Shem Tov from Kabbalist and Sabbatian Judaism to Hasidism. 

Abraham & Moses and Medieval Jews: Paquda and piety, Maimonides, De Leon’s Zohar. How the oldest Abrahamic—Judaism—is embedded in both Christendom and Dar al-Islam 

Chapter 8: Muslim Antecedents: Muhammad, Asharites and Sufis. Medieval Muslims:  al-Hallaj, al-Qushayri, al-Ghazali & Averroes, Ibn ‘Arabi & Ibn Taymiyyah.

Chapter 9: The Crucible of the Counter-Enlightenment VI: Islam’s 18th-century reform and Muhammad Ibn abd al-Wahhab and Shah Waliullah. Rebirth of violent Salafism. 

Chapter 10: Conclusion, Ecstasy and the decay of Ecstasy, Piety vs Moralism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. What religion is.

O autorze

William R. Everdell is an American teacher and author.  His three prior books have also been on the history of ideas.  He has written articles on French historical studies and History of European Ideas, and is the author of numerous reviews in journals including Studies in the Novel and the New York Times Book Review.