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| Genre/Form: | Criticism, interpretation, etc History |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Document, Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Internet Resource, Computer File |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Sarah Ellenzweig |
| ISBN: | 9780804758772 0804758778 |
| OCLC Number: | 895785732 |
| Notes: | Introduction : literary culture, the classical past, and the rise of Restoration freethinking. Libertine precursors. Rochester, Blount, and the faith of unbelief. Behn, Fontenelle, and the cheats of revealed religion. Skepticism and piety. Swift's Tale of a tub and the anthropology of religion. Suspending disbelief : Swift, credulity, and the pious fraud. Conclusion : Pope's "Essay on man" and the afterlife of English freethinking |
| Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 240 p.) |
| Contents: | Contents Introduction Literary Culture, the Classical Past, and the Rise of Restoration Freethinking Part I: Libertine Precursors Chapter One Rochester, Blount, and the Faith of Unbelief Chapter Two Behn, Fontenelle, and the Cheats of Revealed Religion Part II: Skepticism and Piety Chapter Three Swift's Tale of a Tub and the Anthropology of Religion Chapter Four Suspending Disbelief: Swift, Credulity, and the Pious Fraud Conclusion Pope's "Essay on Man" and the Afterlife of English Freethinking Notes Bibliography Index |
| Responsibility: | Sarah Ellenzweig |
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"The sophisticated, learned, and self-consciously literary world of eighteenth-century religious controversy certainly included an intense engagement with the past and a familiarity with heterodox beliefs. By addressing these issues, Ms. Ellenzweig opens a valuable conversation." -- <I>The Scriblerian</I> "Sarah Ellenzweig's important book intriguingly, and successfully explor[es] the ways in which certain free-thinkers in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England, while suspicious of the tenets of revealed religion, nevertheless defended the religious establishment as being the key to preserving order in society after the traumas of the Interregnum. . . [L]ively and intelligent." -- Jeremy Gregory * <i>English Historical Review</i> * "In The Fringes of Belief, Sarah Ellenzweig excavates a fascinating but generally overlooked intellectual tradition that combined political conservatism with radical skepticism. Challenging traditional categories with cogent insight, perceptive reading, and revised versions of intellectual history, Ellenzweig offers fresh and complex appreciations of Aphra Behn, the Earl of Rochester, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and others." -- Laura Rosenthal * University of Maryland * "The Fringes of Belief is one of those all-too-rare books that makes a sharp, original, and provocative argument in a clear and engaging way. Expressing dissatisfaction with the secularization narrative has become commonplace. But it is much harder to come up with alternatives-let alone a subtle, profoundly revisionist one like Ellenzweig's." -- Dror Wahrman * Indiana University * "At a moment of intense debate over the nature of the Enlightenment, Sarah Ellenzweig's The Fringes of Belief comes as an added reminder of just how complex and contrapuntal intellectual history can be . . . [T]his engaging study will be of interest to literary scholars, historians, and scholars of the Enlightenment more generally." -- Kenneth Sheppard * <I>Histoire sociale / Social History</I> * Read more...
