re: Torah-writers: enlightened and ironic J
Probably The core idea of the Enlightenment, is that there is no Revealed Truth. So, they attack religious texts, by treating them as literature, history, myth, psychology, philosophy. Attack is the correct word; that is the way all religious Believers (Christian, Jewish, and especially Muslim) see Enlightenment commentary on their Holy Writ. Sometimes, the attack is overt, sometimes subtle. There is a great deal of contorted thinking, to try and finesse this conflict (Revealed Truth vs. Scientific Method).
This theoretical "J", an Enlightened and Ironic woman, is fairly common today, in Europe and N. America. But, otherwise, in all other places and times, such people are vanishingly rare. It takes a cultural context to create them, and to honor them. A woman like that, in Israel 3000 years ago, would most likely have been labelled insane or dangerous. Shunning, stoning, and burning at the stake, was their common fate, until the 18th Century. And still is, in many places. |
