Knowing the Spirit(s) in the Dutch Radical Reformation: From Physical Perception to Rational Doubt, 1536–1690

Waite, Gary K.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75738-4_2

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“…Built “upon the same foundation of Scripture and Reason,” The World Bewitched announced that “the Empire of the Devil is but a Chimera, and that he has neither such a Power, nor such an Administration as is ordinarily ascribed to him.” (Bekker 1695, lii–lv). In Bekker’s native land dozens of refutations were published, as well as a few defenses of Bekker from authors more radical than he (van Bunge 2017, 38; Waite 2018). Scholars have also shown that some Dutch laypeople accepted and indeed expanded on his central claim that neither spirits, demons, nor the Devil have any earthly agency (Wielema 2004, 53–78; Boterbloem 2008, 174, 270).…”

Section: Illuminating a New View Of Humankind: Fontenelle And Bekkermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Bekker 1695, lii-lv). In Bekker's native land dozens of refutations were published, as well as a few defenses of Bekker from authors more radical than he (van Bunge 2017, 38;Waite 2018). Scholars have also shown that some Dutch laypeople accepted and indeed expanded on his central claim that neither spirits, demons, nor the Devil have any earthly agency (Wielema 2004, 53-78;Boterbloem 2008, 174, 270).…”

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Offshoring the invisible world? American ghosts, witches, and demons in the early enlightenment

Koslofsky

2021

Critical Research on Religion

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The fierce debate about the reality of spirits and the “Invisible World” which flared up in the 1690’s helped define the early Enlightenment. All sides in this debate—from Spinoza and Balthasar Bekker to John Beaumont and Cotton Mather—refashioned familiar metaphors of light and darkness and connected them with the world beyond Europe in surprising new ways. This article shows how this key controversy of the early Enlightenment was built upon references to darkness, light, and the benighted pagan peoples of the world. As new street lighting and improved domestic lighting nocturnalized daily life in the Netherlands, London, and Paris, the old denizens of the night - ghosts, spirits, and witches—were increasingly relegated to the extra-European world and used to articulate new categories of human difference based on civility, reason, and skin color. These new categories of human difference—new ways of seeing and ordering the world—were essential to the formation of early modern whiteness and the Enlightenment.

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Section: Illuminating a New View Of Humankind: Fontenelle And Bekkermentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Offshoring the invisible world? American ghosts, witches, and demons in the early enlightenment

Koslofsky

2021

Critical Research on Religion

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“…On another note, the anti-demonological influence of many of the authors considered in this poem, such as Abraham Palingh and Antonius Van Dale, is analyzed in. (Waite 2018) 2 For Hobbes' understanding of demons and its impact, see, among others, (Del Olmo 2018; MacMillan 2014; Bath and Newton 2006;Schaffer 1985;Jobe 1981).…”

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confidence: 99%

“Such Fictitious Evil Spirits”: Adriaan Koerbagh’s Rejection of Biblical Demons and Demonic Possession in A Light Shining in Dark Places (1668)

Olmo

2019

Religions

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This paper traces Adriaan Koerbagh’s interpretation of biblical devils and scriptural instances of demonic possession in his 1668 Een Ligt Schijnende in Duystere Plaatsen (A light shining in dark places). Koerbagh’s book is a radical exponent of the early Dutch Enlightenment, and its views on demonology are of importance if we want to assess the extent to which traditional scholastic pneumatology was challenged in the second half of the XVIIth century. This paper will also address Thomas Hobbes’ positions regarding demons and demonic possession in Leviathan (1651), given that Hobbes’ interpretations were fundamental to Koerbagh’s own positions. We will focus on the Hobbesian exegetical strategies of etymology, naturalization, and metaphorization, which helped Koerbagh to point at diseases, evil thoughts, figures of speech, or human enemies as plausible explanations for scriptural passages concerning devils and possession. But we will also see that Koerbagh’s Cartesian definition of spirits led him to a more radical stance than that of Hobbes: demons do not exist at all. This paper will end by claiming that Koerbagh’s interpretation of Christian demonology both as a remnant of Pagan and Jewish superstitions, and a knowledge indifferent to salvation—themselves Hobbesian principles—went hand in hand with his attempt to secularize the biblical text. Thus, the devil, once a part of the sacred truth, could now be seen as a fragment of a human cultural heritage.

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Knowing the Spirit(s) in the Dutch Radical Reformation: From Physical Perception to Rational Doubt, 1536–1690

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Offshoring the invisible world? American ghosts, witches, and demons in the early enlightenment

Offshoring the invisible world? American ghosts, witches, and demons in the early enlightenment

“Such Fictitious Evil Spirits”: Adriaan Koerbagh’s Rejection of Biblical Demons and Demonic Possession in A Light Shining in Dark Places (1668)

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