Ernest Renan

For the ship, see French cruiser Ernest Renan.

Ernest Renan
A black and white photograph of Renan
Ernest Renan c. 1870s
Born
Joseph Ernest Renan

(1823-02-28)28 February 1823
Tréguier, Kingdom of France
Died2 October 1892(1892-10-02) (aged 69)
Paris, French Third Republic
Notable workLife of Jesus (1863)
What Is a Nation? (1882)
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy
Main interests
History of religion, philosophy of religion, political philosophy
Notable ideas
Civic nationalism[1]
Signature

Joseph Ernest Renan (French: [ʒozɛf ɛʁnɛst ʁənɑ̃]; 27 February 1823 – 2 October 1892)[2] was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic.[3] He wrote works on the origins of early Christianity,[3] and espoused popular political theories especially concerning nationalism, national identity, and the alleged superiority of White people over other human "races".[4] Renan is known as being among the first scholars to advance the debunked[5] Khazar theory, which held that Ashkenazi Jews were descendants of the Khazars,[6] Turkic peoples who had adopted the Jewish religion[7] and allegedly migrated to central and eastern Europe following the collapse of their khanate.[6]

  1. ^ Ernest Renan. "What is a Nation?", 1882; cf. Chaim Gans, The Limits of Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 11.
  2. ^ "Notes & Obituary Notes" . Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 42. December 1892. ISSN 0161-7370 – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ a b Römer, Thomas (11 October 2012). Homage to Ernest Renan: Renan's historical and critical exegesis of the Bible (Speech). Symposium. Amphithéâtre Marguerite de Navarre-Marcelin Berthelot: Collège de France. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cesaire1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism? New Research Says 'No'". en.huji.ac.il. Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 26 June 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b Stampfer, Shaul (Summer 2013). "Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism?". Jewish Social Studies. 19 (3). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press: 1–72. doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.19.3.1. S2CID 161320785.
  7. ^ Feldman, Alex Mesibov (2023). "Chapter 4: Khazaria: The Exception Which Proves the Rules". In Raffensperger, Christian (ed.). How Medieval Europe was Ruled. Routledge. pp. 41–52. doi:10.4324/9781003213239-4. ISBN 978-1032100166.