Abstract
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Ramon Llull unde rstood the need of actually engaging with the beliefs of his Jewish and Muslim contemporaries, rather than just with their texts, if he wanted to attain their conversion to Christianity.
Coming from the Iberian peninsula where new theologies like Kabbalah were gaining ground among the Jews, Llull harnessed its central tenets in order to convince the Jews, by "necessary reason", of the inherent truth of Christianity. This article discusses the intellectual milieau in which Llull developed his Art, shows how he intended it to be used, and brings a Jewish response by Solomon ibn Adret, leader of the Jewish community in Catalonia to the challenge posed by Llull.
Coming from the Iberian peninsula where new theologies like Kabbalah were gaining ground among the Jews, Llull harnessed its central tenets in order to convince the Jews, by "necessary reason", of the inherent truth of Christianity. This article discusses the intellectual milieau in which Llull developed his Art, shows how he intended it to be used, and brings a Jewish response by Solomon ibn Adret, leader of the Jewish community in Catalonia to the challenge posed by Llull.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 112-141 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Mirabilia: Electronic Journal of Antiquity & Middle Ages |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| State | Published - 30 Dec 2005 |
Keywords
- Catalan literature
- Latin language literature
- 400-1499 Medieval period
- Lull, Ramón(d. 1315)
- prose
- Christianity
- cabala
- religious conversion
- Jews
- Adret, Solomon ben Abraham (1235-1310)
- Spanish literature
- Hebrew language literature