- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804781930
- eISBN:
- 9780804782821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804781930.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
During the Renaissance and until the Reformation, Christian scholars became increasingly preoccupied with the interrelationship between language and religion on one hand, and philology and theology ...
More
During the Renaissance and until the Reformation, Christian scholars became increasingly preoccupied with the interrelationship between language and religion on one hand, and philology and theology on the other hand. This focus gave birth to a branch of Christian scholarship known as Christian Hebraism, which dealt with Hebraica and Judaica from the late fifteenth century onwards. Some of the most renowned and influential Hebraists and Orientalists in early modern Germany, from Paulus Fagius and Sebastian Münster to Johann Buxtorf, August Pfeiffer, and Johann Heinrich Callenberg, devoted their time to the study of Yiddish literature and language. The result was a phenomenon called “Christian Yiddishism.” Christians, especially theologians, were encouraged to become proficient in the Yiddish language in order for them to missionize among the Jews, to read Jewish literature in Yiddish, and to use the language in the study of Hebrew and the biblical text.Less
During the Renaissance and until the Reformation, Christian scholars became increasingly preoccupied with the interrelationship between language and religion on one hand, and philology and theology on the other hand. This focus gave birth to a branch of Christian scholarship known as Christian Hebraism, which dealt with Hebraica and Judaica from the late fifteenth century onwards. Some of the most renowned and influential Hebraists and Orientalists in early modern Germany, from Paulus Fagius and Sebastian Münster to Johann Buxtorf, August Pfeiffer, and Johann Heinrich Callenberg, devoted their time to the study of Yiddish literature and language. The result was a phenomenon called “Christian Yiddishism.” Christians, especially theologians, were encouraged to become proficient in the Yiddish language in order for them to missionize among the Jews, to read Jewish literature in Yiddish, and to use the language in the study of Hebrew and the biblical text.
Aya Elyada
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804781930
- eISBN:
- 9780804782821
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804781930.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book explores the unique phenomenon of Christian engagement with Yiddish language and literature from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the late eighteenth century. By analyzing the ...
More
This book explores the unique phenomenon of Christian engagement with Yiddish language and literature from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the late eighteenth century. By analyzing the motivations for Christian interest in Yiddish, and the differing ways in which Yiddish was discussed and treated in Christian texts, it addresses a wide array of issues, most notably Christian Hebraism, Protestant theology, early modern Yiddish culture, and the social and cultural history of language in early modern Europe. The analysis of a wide range of philological and theological works, as well as textbooks, dictionaries, ethnographical writings, and translations, demonstrates that Christian Yiddishism had implications beyond its purely linguistic and philological dimensions. Indeed, Christian texts on Yiddish reveal not only the ways in which Christians perceived and defined Jews and Judaism, but also, in a contrasting vein, how they viewed their own language, religion, and culture.Less
This book explores the unique phenomenon of Christian engagement with Yiddish language and literature from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the late eighteenth century. By analyzing the motivations for Christian interest in Yiddish, and the differing ways in which Yiddish was discussed and treated in Christian texts, it addresses a wide array of issues, most notably Christian Hebraism, Protestant theology, early modern Yiddish culture, and the social and cultural history of language in early modern Europe. The analysis of a wide range of philological and theological works, as well as textbooks, dictionaries, ethnographical writings, and translations, demonstrates that Christian Yiddishism had implications beyond its purely linguistic and philological dimensions. Indeed, Christian texts on Yiddish reveal not only the ways in which Christians perceived and defined Jews and Judaism, but also, in a contrasting vein, how they viewed their own language, religion, and culture.
