{"id":16919,"date":"2014-12-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2014-12-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T00:00:00","slug":"jeroboam-in-early-modernity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/12\/jeroboam-in-early-modernity\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeroboam in Early Modernity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

In a 2006 article in Past & Present<\/em>, Jonathan Sheehan traces the origins of the modern contrast of sacred and profane to seventeenth-century dispute about idolatry. It\u2019s a story of keen interest, but this particularly caught my eye. He\u2019s talking about the role of the golden calf incident in 17th-century debates about idolatry, and writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Aaron\u2019s errors testified to the poisonous effects of idolatry on the mind of the credulous, Jeroboam\u2019s fall testified to its poisonous effects on the political life of the nation. This was particularly appropriate in the seventeenth century. Where the sixteenth century had operated largely within the rhetoric of heresy and schism (implying that Christian unity might return, whether by violence or by reconciliation), by 1600 the diversity of Christian churches was a stubborn feature of the political and religious landscape. Like Israel and Judah long before, the tribes of Europe were permanently divided. The seventeenthcentury obsession with Jewish idolatry thus had a compelling logic in the light of the new immobility of Europe\u2019s religious division: Jeroboam\u2019s deviance resonated with a period when, perplexingly, the love of God was shared by all, but the ways to show this love had become fiendishly divisive. And so, Calvinists repeatedly noted that Jeroboam\u2019s love of God did nothing to exonerate his idolatrous behaviour. The anonymous author of the Originall of Popish Idolatrie described how Jeroboam \u2018instituted strange Priests, corrupted the Law of God\u2019 and began an \u2018Idolatrie and corruption of sacrifices\u2019 that continued for \u2018more then [sic] foure hundred yeers.\u2019 Grotius offered a typically laconic comment \u2014 that \u2018princes are accustomed to twisting sacred matters to their ends\u2019 \u2014 but declared it God\u2019s will that Jeroboam, like the Pharaoh, \u2018might be hardened more and more in his idolatry\u2019\u201d (45).<\/p>\n

Jeroboam\u2019s is ultimately a cautionary tale: \u201cJeroboam loved Jehovah enough to demolish the impious Solomonic state and Aaron carried this love throughout his priestly life. Nonetheless, both Aaron and Jeroboam were indisputably and finally guilty of idol worship. The monotheistic, yet backsliding, Jews thus repeatedly showed that belief in God in no way ensured orthopraxis\u201d (46).<\/p>\n

Sheehan, \u201cSacred and Profane: Idolatry, Antiquarianism and the Polemics of Distinction in the Seventeenth Century,\u201d\u00a0P&P<\/em> 192 (2006) 35-66.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a 2006 article in Past & Present, Jonathan Sheehan traces the origins of the modern contrast of sacred and profane to seventeenth-century dispute about idolatry. It\u2019s a story of keen interest, but this particularly caught my eye. He\u2019s talking about the role of the golden calf incident in 17th-century debates about idolatry, and writes: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[910,1159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-idolatry","category-jeroboam"],"yoast_head":"\nJeroboam in Early Modernity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a 2006 article in Past & Present, Jonathan Sheehan traces the origins of the modern contrast of sacred and profane to seventeenth-century dispute\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/12\/jeroboam-in-early-modernity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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