The Hutchinsonian defence of an old testament trinitarian Christianity: the controversy over elahim, 1735-1773
Author
Gurses, D.
Date
2003Source Title
History of European Ideas
Print ISSN
0191-6599
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Volume
29
Issue
4
Pages
393 - 409
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
The importance of Hebraic studies as part of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment debate
can hardly be overestimated. The question of the authority of the Books of Scripture forced
intellectuals in England to revisit the language of the Old Testament text. The agenda of the
Hutchinsonians here was to highlight the Old Testament’s Trinitarian elements, as they saw
them. The controversy over the etymology of the word Elahim illustrated that the
Hutchinsonians were the young Turks of orthodoxy in the fight between fideism and
rationalism. It also demonstrated the problem the Hutchinsonians represented for those who
would otherwise be their Trinitarian allies.
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