Missionaries, Converts, and Rabbis : : The Evangelical Alexander McCaul and Jewish-Christian Debate in the Nineteenth Century / / David B. Ruderman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English
• VerfasserIn: Ruderman, David B.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Jewish Culture and Contexts
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.) :; 7 illus.

An examination of the life and work of Alexander McCaul and his impact on Jewish-Christian relationsIn Missionaries, Converts, and Rabbis, David B. Ruderman considers the life and works of prominent evangelical missionary Alexander McCaul (1799-1863), who was sent to Warsaw by the London Society for the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews. He and his family resided there for nearly a decade, which afforded him the opportunity to become a scholar of Hebrew and rabbinic texts. Returning to England, he quickly rose up through the ranks of missionaries to become a leading figure and educator in the organization and eventually a professor of post-biblical studies at Kings College, London. In 1837, McCaul published The Old Paths, a powerful critique of rabbinic Judaism that, once translated into Hebrew and other languages, provoked controversy among Jews and Christians alike.Ruderman first examines McCaul in his complexity as a Hebraist affectionately supportive of Jews while opposing the rabbis. He then focuses his attention on a larger network of his associates, both allies and foes, who interacted with him and his ideas: two converts who came under his influence but eventually broke from him; two evangelical colleagues who challenged his aggressive proselytizing among the Jews; and, lastly, three Jewish thinkers-two well-known scholars from Eastern Europe and a rabbi from Syria-who refuted his charges against the rabbis and constructed their own justifications for Judaism in the mid-nineteenth century.Missionaries, Converts, and Rabbis reconstructs a broad transnational conversation between Christians, Jews, and those in between, opening a new vista for understanding Jewish and Christian thought and the entanglements between the two faith communities that persist in the modern era. Extending the geographical and chronological reach of his previous books, Ruderman continues his exploration of the impact of Jewish-Christian relations on Jewish self-reflection and the phenomenon of mingled identities in early modern and modern Europe.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Portrait of an Evangelical Missionary to the Jews: Alexander McCaul and His Assault on Rabbinic Judaism -- Chapter 2. Sketches of Modern Judaism in McCaul's Other Writings -- Chapter 3. From Missionizing the Jews to Defending Biblical Inerrancy: The Last Years of McCaul's Life -- Chapter 4. The Intellectual and Spiritual Journey of Stanislaus Hoga: From Judaism to Christianity to Hebrew Christianity -- Chapter 5. The Christian Opponents of McCaul and the London Society: John Oxlee and Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna -- Chapter 6. Moses Margoliouth: The Precarious Life of a Scholarly Convert -- Chapter 7. The Jewish Response to McCaul: Isaac Baer Levinsohn -- Chapter 8. From Vilna to Aleppo: Two Additional Responses to McCaul's Assault -- Afterword -- Appendix: A Sampling of Contemporary Christian Authors Cited in Isaac Baer Levinsohn's Polemical Writings -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments