Overview

In the seventeenth century, in England, a remarkable number of small religious movements began adopting demonstratively Jewish ritual practices. They were labelled by their contemporaries as Judaizers. Why did this happen? Was it an excrescence of over-exuberant biblicism? Was it a by-product of the Protestant apocalyptic tradition? Was it a response to the changing status of the Jews in Europe? In Jewish Christians in Puritan England, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce argues that Puritan Judaizing was in fact an expression of another aspect of the Puritan experience: the need to be recognized as a 'singular, ' positively distinctive, and Godly minority

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9781725261402

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Reviews

An original and innovative contribution to our understanding of a neglected tendency within Puritanism. A compelling work that has implications that go well beyond its subject matter and opens up new ways of thinking about Christian interpretations and appropriations of Judaism. --Justin Meggitt, Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Researcher, Stockholm University Aidan Cottrell-Boyce takes his readers on a fascinating journey, exploring the significance of 'Judaizing' trends among English Puritans. Operating at the intersection of theological and sociological analysis, he presents an innovative and convincing account in which the adoption of 'Jewish' practices enabled individuals to take on a stance of distinctiveness and separation from the surrounding culture of the dominant majority. The book's argument has implications beyond its seventeenth-century focus, illuminating a broader historical pattern of scripturally shaped resistance-identity that can be traced through early Christianity, rabbinic Judaism, the rise of Protestantism, and the Radical Reformation. --Daniel H. Weiss, Polonsky-Coexist Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies, University of Cambridge

Author Information

Aidan Cottrell-Boyce is a research fellow at St Mary's University in London. He is the author of Israelism in Modern Britain (2020).

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