Toward Enlightenment

Abstract

Abstract The concluding chapter explores the broad conceptual changes that Paul’s style underwent in the latter half of the seventeenth century. It shows that larger developments in the practice of biblical criticism—and the effects of these developments on theologies of scripture—led to changing conceptions of and attitudes toward Paul’s style among leading figures on the shifting intellectual and cultural landscapes of early Enlightenment Europe. Such changes emerged most immediately in the works of heterodox theologians and philosophers, who developed new critiques of Paul’s style by reforming or else rejecting the theoretical premises upon which humanist discussions of it were based. Other critics and poets continued to support Paul’s eloquence, particularly orthodox Protestants, though they too worked to reimagine Paul’s style for early Enlightenment readers, specifically by associating its effects with emerging conceptions of literary-aesthetic sublimity.