Heiko A. Oberman (1930–2001)

NO OF PAGES: 163 SUB CAT I: Anti-Semitism SUB CAT II: SUB CAT III: DESCRIPTION: Europe in the sixteenth century experienced exciting new breakthroughs - in faith, in culture, and in education. At the forefront of this movement were the founding fathers of modern Europe - Reuchlin, Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin - who, in their bold reformational drive, together broke down the barriers to a new world. Their achievements, at best ambiguous in contemporary Jewish eyes, did little, however, to make the sixteenth century anything more for the Jews than a bleak extension of the dark Middle Ages. Against this background, Oberman carries out his provocative study of the roots of anti-Semitism. Although the focus of the book is the age of Renaissance and Reformation, Professor Oberman points out that the roots of anti-Semitism were laid long before the sixteenth century, with consequences that cannot be adequately understood apart from a careful probing of our own, most immediate historical roots. The age of Renaissance and Reformation, at the threshold of the modern era, proves to have been indeed an age of renewal in more ways than one. "Hatred of the Jews was no an invention of the sixteenth century. It was an inherited assumption. Far from acquitting the age of Renaissance and Reformation, we should recognize that this same age which so consciously scrutinized the medieval traditions simultaneously pass on, with new strength, whatever withstood the test of inspection. This is what stamps the character of the age and determines its significance for the modern era.NOTES: Purchased from Half Price Books. SUBTITLE: In the Age of Renaissance and Reformation… (lisätietoja)