Henrike Englhardt, M.A.

Über die Promotion

John Spencer’s De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus et Earum Rationibus Libri Tres (1685): a case study in the genealogy of modern notions of religion and secularity

This PhD project aims to investigate the genealogy of modern notions of religion, secularity and religious tolerance in early modern English thought, paying particular attention to the way Jews and Judaism are conceptualised therein. The focus of this project is on John Spencer, a theologian who was Master of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, Dean of Ely (Cambridgeshire) and a respected member of a circle of Cambridge Hebraists in 17th century Restoration England. His rationalisation of the Mosaic ritual law in his main monograph, De Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus et Earum Rationibus Libri Tres (1685) has been mostly neglected in scholarly research so far. In the few extant academic articles on Spencer, his work has been hailed by some as a pre-Enlightenment attempt to develop an early anthropological account of religion while others see it as an intervention in the ongoing debates between Anglicans, Puritans and Catholics on the role of ritual in early modern Europe. I intend to add much needed nuance to those two interpretations of Spencer’s thought through a close reading of the introduction to his De Legibus where he outlined his intentions and methodology. Furthermore, by translating and contextualising his chapter on the Judaic theocracy of the post-exilic Hebrew Republic, a recurrent motif of political thought in 17th century England, I intend to open an enquiry into his impact on the development of modern concepts of political secularisation.