The Idea of Semitic Monotheism: The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth

311 Pages·2021·2.192 MB·English

by  Guy Stroumsa

OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
Te Idea of Semitic Monotheism
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
Te Idea of Semitic
Monotheism
Te Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth
GUY G. STROUMSA
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
1
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ISBN 978–0–19–289868–5
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898685.001.0001
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
For Tema and Mark Silk
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
Acknowledgements
Although most chapters of this book were written in Jerusalem, I have used
library facilities also in Oxford, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Berlin, and Paris. I
started working on it during my Oxford stint, as the frst Professor of the
Study of the Abrahamic Religions. My College, Lady Margaret Hall, is
located at the end of Norham Gardens, where Max Müller once lived. My
original puzzlement at the fact that the Chair had only been established in
2009, rather than in his days, a century-a nd- a- half earlier, lies at the root of
this book.
A generous Research Award from the Alexander-v on-H umboldt-S tifung,
in 2008, permitted the initial research on this project. My intensive
involvement with its topic started as I worked on the Jordan Lectures in
Comparative Religion, which I delivered in the spring of 2013 at the School
of Oriental and African Studies in London. I wish to thank Catherine
Hezser for her kind invitation. I did not guess at the time that it would take
me so long to transform these lectures into a book. My gratitude also goes
to Peter Mack for the Workshop on “Judaism and Islam in the Mind of
Europe” that he asked me to organize at the Warburg Institute, of which he
was then Director, on June 6, 2013. I am grateful to the Frankel Center for
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evre Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for a Fellowship
se in 2015, and to the John U. Nef Committee on Social Tought at the
r sth University of Chicago for a Kohut Visiting Professorship in 2016. I was able
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ir llA to pursue research on this book with the help of remarkable libraries in Ann
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S Arbor and Chicago. I wish to thank Luca Guliani, former Rector of the
O
- A Wissenschafskolleg zu Berlin, for having extended to me a Fellowship at
S
U
sse this remarkable institution in 2017. Te excellent conditions at the WiKo
rP did much to facilitate my research. Te lecture I gave at the reception
ytisre (jointly with Sarah Stroumsa) of the Leopold- Lucas Prize in Tübingen on
vinU May 8, 2018 provided further incentive to publish my views on the topic
d
ro (Guy  G.  Stroumsa and Sarah Stroumsa, Eine dreifältige Schnur: über
fxO
.1 Judentum, Christentum und Islam in Geschichte und Wissenschaf [Tübingen:
2
02 Mohr Siebeck, 2020]). I wish to express my gratitude to the Evangelical
©
th Teological Faculty at the University of Tübingen for this award.
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
viii Acknowledgements
I am beholden to Rajeev Bhargava (CSDS, Delhi), Corrine Bonnet
(Toulouse), Arthur Bradley (Lancaster), Renaud Gagné, Simon Goldhill
and Geofrey Lloyd (Cambridge), Charles Stang (CSWR, Harvard), and
Carsten Wilke (Central European University, then Budapest) for having
invited me to present parts of this work at a number of workshops and con-
ferences. Over the years, Dominique Bourel (CNRS, Jerusalem) read a
number of the chapters in their draf form and discussed their content with
me. In acts of true friendship, both Philippe Borgeaud (Geneva) and
Maurice Kriegel (EHESS, Paris) read the whole typescript; I am much
indebted to them for their important comments. Naphtali Meshel
(Jerusalem) and Perrine Simon- Nahum (CNRS, Paris) kindly agreed to
read various chapters. Teodor Dunkelgrün (Cambridge) and Robert Priest
(Royal Holloway, London) commented on Chapter six. My own refection
on Renan has benefted from almost daily conversations with François
Hartog (EHESS, Paris) in Chicago during the fall of 2016, when we were
both teaching in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Tought at the
University of Chicago. A French version of the frst half of Chapter four,
published in Asdiwal in 2018, was dedicated to the distinguished Parisian
Sanskritist Charles Malamoud, in recognition of his friendship and gener-
osity over the past fve decades. Jacques Le Brun, with whom I discussed
various aspects of this book, will not be able to read it: he became a victim
of Covid- 19 in early spring 2020.
At Oxford University Press, I was lucky to have Tom Perridge as a
thoughtful and gracious editor. I am most grateful to the anonymous read-
.d
evre ers, who called my attention to a number of serious problems in the original
se typescript. Te reports they produced helped me to clarify and sharpen my
r sth thought and to prune my text of many errors and typos. Once more, Sara
g
ir llA Tropper’s excellent editing saved me from many oddities and infelicities.
.O
S I am beholden to Marc Sherman, who compiled the indices with great care.
O
- A I wish to thank the Centre des monuments nationaux in Paris for allowing
S
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sse me to use their photo of Renan’s study at the Collège de France, as reconsti-
rP tuted in Renan’s native home in Tréguier, for the dust jacket. My gratitude
ytisre goes to Margo Stroumsa- Uzan for suggesting this photo.
vinU Troughout the years, Sarah Stroumsa has been my frst, last, and tough-
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ro est reader. My debt to her is infnite.
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.1 I dedicate this book to Tema and Mark Silk, in gratitude for half a cen-
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02 tury of constant friendship and intellectual exchange.
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January 2021
Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
Contents
Introduction: Te Study of Religion and the Spirit of Orientalism 1
1. Varieties of Monotheism and the Tree Rings 24
Te Emergence of a Concept 24
A Medieval Legacy 35
2. Te Enlightenment’s Paradigm Shif and the Tree Impostors 43
Philosophes Comparing Religions 43
Te Abrahamic Eclipse 56
3. Aryans, Semites, and Jewish Scholars 63
A Romantic Tradition 64
Aryans and Semites 72
Wissenschaf des Judentums and Jewish Orientalism 76
4. Cultural Transfers and Philologia Orientalis 85
Anquetil Duperron: Go East, Young Man 86
A New Epistemology 101
5. Semitic Monotheism: Renan on Judaism and Islam 111
Monotheism and Race 112
.d Te Jewish Miracle and Anti- Islamism 120
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r sth Jesus a Man? 131
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- AS Building Institutions 147
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ytisrevin 8. FCroonmtr othvee rQsyu arrel of Monotheism to the Babel–Bibel 167
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d Te Quarrel of Monotheism 167
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FINAL, 17/04/21, SPi
x Contents
9. Semitic Religion and Sacrifcial Ritual 191
Max Müller and the Birth of “World Religions” 191
Julius Wellhausen on Hebrews and Arabs 201
William Robertson Smith: Te Sacrifcial Turn 207
10. Sacrifce Compared: Israel and India 219
Hubert and Mauss: Sacrifce in Context 221
Jewish Scholars and the Dreyfus Afair 226
Robert Hertz: Becoming the Expiatory Sacrifce 237
Oriental Religions 241
Conclusion: Comparing Monotheisms 245
Bibliography 253
Selected Name Index 289
General Index 293
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Stroumsa, Guy G.. The Idea of Semitic Monotheism : The Rise and Fall of a Scholarly Myth, Oxford University