"Israël selon la chair" et "Israël selon l’esprit" : philo-soémitisme et réforme chez Roger Williams

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the historical thesis whereby the Old Testament and Judaizing’ culture of British Calvinism contributed to the readmission of the Jews into England in the mid-17th century. The example of Roger Williams’ debates with those supporting a national church in the 1640s would seem to show, however, that the Jews were still considered as figures of discourse and were not considered as ‘real’, contemporary Jews. After the collapse of the national Episcopalian church, the issue of the Reformation was more relevant than ever. A new religious elite attempted to secure their authority by holding as the ultimate foundations of reformed society the institutional models of the Pentateuch, though the Jews were accorded no place within it. Conversely, Williams is opposed to identification with Israel but proves willing to welcome the Jews into the state. Nevertheless, this toleration is only the indirect consequence of a political theory founded on the distinction between divine law and natural law, where the figure of the Jew is anathema and Judaism is a counter-model.