Festschrift in honor of Richard H. Popkin.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary Material -- SCEPTICISM AND THE PROBLEM OF THE CRITERION / Avrum Stroll -- GIBBON AND THE IDOL FO: CHINESE AND CHRISTIAN HISTORY IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT / J.G.A. Pocock -- DESCARTES - AN ENTHUSIAST MALGRÉ LUI? / Michael Heyd -- REFLECTIONS ON THE OTHER-MINDS PROBLEM: DESCARTES AND OTHERS / Alan Gabbey -- DESCARTES AND THE METHOD OF ANNIHILATION / Amos Funkenstein -- DUTCH SEPHARDI JEWRY, MILLENARIAN POLITICS, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR BRAZIL (1640-1654) / Jonathan I. Israel -- WHY WAS BARUCH DE SPINOZA EXCOMMUNICATED? / Asa Kasher and Shlomo Biderman -- QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND MESSIANIC THOUGHT / Susanna Âkerman -- A PHILO-SEMITIC MILLENARIAN ON THE RECONCILIATION OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS: HENRY JESSEY AND HIS \' T H E GLORY AND SALVATION OF JEHUDAH AND ISRAEL\' (1650) / Ernestine G.E. Van Der Wall -- AU DOSSIER DU SABBATAISME: UNE RELATION ITALIENNE DU XVIIème SIÈCLE / Henry Méchoulan -- \'KARAITES\' IN EARLY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMSTERDAM / Yosef Kaplan -- THE HUTCHINSONIANS AND HEBRAIC FUNDAMENTALISM IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND -- PRIESTLEY, THE JEWS AND THE MILLENNIUM / J. Van Den Berg -- SOCIAL THEORY AND GOTHIC HORROR IN THE WRITINGS OF SIMON-NICOLAS-HENRI LINGUET / Jeremy D Popkin -- INDEX.

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One of the main consequences of recent work in early modern intellectual and religious history has been a discrediting of the notion of a sudden and dramatic transition to the spiritual world of the Enlightenment. Scholars are increasingly examining the underlying spiritual trends and tendencies which confirm the variety and complexity of the slow movement from Renaissance to Enlightenment, and the profound impact of many of the manifestations of intellectual and religious tension during the early modern period. The essays in this volume are a contribution to this process of reappraisal, focusing specifically on the phenomena of scepticism and millenarianism, especially as part of the more pronounced role of the Jews and their culture.