Milton & the Rabbis - Hebraism, Hellenism, & Christianity

Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-231-12329-7
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 217 mm, Gewicht: 481 g

Taking as its starting point the long-standing characterization of Milton as a "Hebraic" writer, Milton and the Rabbis probes the limits of the relationship between the seventeenth-century English poet and polemicist and his Jewish antecedents. Shoulson's analysis moves back and forth between Milton's writings and Jewish writings of the first five centuries of the Common Era, collectively known as midrash. In exploring the historical and literary implications of these connections, Shoulson shows how Milton's text can inform a more nuanced reading of midrash just as midrash can offer new insights into Paradise Lost.

Shoulson is unconvinced of a direct link between a specific collection of rabbinic writings and Milton's works. He argues that many of Milton's poetic ideas that parallel midrash are likely to have entered Christian discourse not only through early modern Christian Hebraicists but also through Protestant writers and preachers without special knowledge of Hebrew. At the heart of Shoulson's inquiry lies a fundamental question: When is an idea, a theme, or an emphasis distinctively Judaic or Hebraic and when is it Christian? The difficulty in answering such questions reveals and highlights the fluid interaction between ostensibly Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian modes of thought not only during the early modern period but also early in time when rabbinic Judaism and Christianity began.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shoulson, Jeffrey

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

A Note on the TextsIntroduction: Hebraism and Literary History1. Diaspora and Restoration2. "Taking Sanctuary Among the Jews'': Milton and the Form of Jewish Precedent3. The Poetics of Accommodation: Theodicy and the Language of Kingship4. Imagining Desire: Divine and Human Creativity5. "So Shall the World Go On'': Martyrdom, Interpretation, and HistoryEpilogue: Toward Interpreting the Hebraism of Samson AgonistesNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Jeffrey Shoulson is assistant professor of English and Judaic studies at the University of Miami.