Haim Mahlev

Theologia Naturalis Hebraeorum? Models of Rational Religion in the German Enlightenment

My research strives to assess the impact of the discourse on ‘theologia naturalis’ during the German Enlightenment on shaping the image of Christianity and Judaism as rational religions. I wish to show in what way this discourse, which considered Christianity a rational religion while often depicting Judaism as irrational and atheistic, led both religions to try and disengage themselves from ‘theosophical’ thought. The process resulted in the late Enlightenment in a formulation of two different but essentially interrelated models of rational religion, both of which attempted to distance the dogma from mystical thought, which in some cases led to de-authentication or de-authorization of ‘perennial knowledge’, while in others it led to a reinstatement of the theosophical knowledge as secluded and accessible only to the worthy–a ‘re-esotericism’ process of theosophical texts.