The authors and works of religious content in the 19th century

Abstract

In general, religious literary production has difficult access to histories of literatura has difficult access to histories of literature. The Hebrew ones devote scarce or none to authors and works of religious topic after the death of Elijah ben Zalman Kramer, the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797) in contrast with the wide room that they keep for some medieval writers such as Rashi, Maimonides and Nahmanides, in whose books religion is the exclusive, the oustanding or the main topic. Almost all the Jewish authors of religious literature in Hebrew in the nineteenth century have been relegated to the sphere of pious readings or theological and spiritual formation, fate also reserved to contemporary Christian colleagues of theirs such as John Henry Newmann (1801-1890) or Theresa of Lisieux (1873-1897). During the nineteenth century the Jewish communities in Europe and America lived in a remarkable cultural and religious excitement as a result of the impact of the Haskalah and the growth of secularization in western societies. In the middle of this situation, the most qualified representatives of the orthodox field kept on producing a rich, outstanding religious literature in Hebrew language. This article deals with it.