Toleration, liberty of conscience and freedom of religion belonged to the key and most controversial values of the Dutch Golden Age. Dutch debates on these values go back to the Dutch Revolt, the fight for independence against Philip II and his government in the second half of the 16th century. Initially the focus was on how different Christian groups and communities, including most notably Calvinists, Catholics and Mennonites should live and tolerate each other. The settlement of Jewish refugees in the beginning of the seventeenth century added a new dimension. The central aim of the lecture is to explore how a number of central figures of the Golden Age discussed and analysed the position of Jewish communities and of Judaism in the Dutch Republic. Rembrandt, so often celebrated as the painter of Jewish life, Hugo Grotius, one of the key intellectuals of the Golden Age and a founding father of theories of international law and natural rights, and Menasseh Ben Israel, one of the rabbis of the Amsterdam Jewish community and a key figure in 17th century European intellectual life – all, in their own way, contributed significantly to the dialogue between Judaism and Christianity in early modern Europe.
Martin van Gelderen is Professor of European Intellectual History at the European University Institute in Florence. His research focuses on the political and religious thought of early modern Europe. He is co-editor with Quentin Skinner of the forthcoming volume Freedom and the Construction of Europe: New perspectives on philosophical, religious and political controversies (Cambridge, 2010).
