Imaginary Controversists: Abraham Gómez Silveyra and the Theologians of the Huguenot Exile

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    Abstract (may include machine translation)

    In the Huguenot refugee community in The Netherlands, known as a hotbed of the early Enlightenment, literary interest in Judaism was ubiquitous, yet actual Dutch Jews were relegated to a marginal position in the exchange of ideas. It is this paradoxical experience of cultural participation and social exclusion that a major unpublished source allows to depict. The ex-converso Abraham Gómez Silveyra (1651–1741), a merchant endowed with rabbinic education and proficiency in French, composed eight manuscript volumes of theological reflections in Spanish literary prose and poetry. This huge clan-destine series, which survives in three copies, shows the author’s insatiable curiosity for Christian thought. While rebutting Isaac Jacquelot’s missionary activity, he fraternizes with Pierre Jurieu’s millenarianism, Jacques Basnage’s historiography, and Pierre Bayle’s plea for religious freedom. Gómez Silveyra, however, being painfully aware of his voicelessness in the public sphere, enacts Bayle’s utopian project as a closed perform-ance for a Jewish audience.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)449-475
    Number of pages27
    JournalSefarad
    Volume81
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 30 Dec 2021

    Keywords

    • Amsterdam
    • Enlightenment
    • Jewish-Christian Polemics
    • Tolerance

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