The Prophets of Israel and their Place in History by Lee Rain... - 9781138537910

Taylor & Francis

Originally published in 1882, The Prophets of Israel is a collection of eight lectures. > In the history of nineteenth-century religious thought, William Robertson Smith occupies an ambiguous position. More than any other writer, he stimulated the theories of religion later advanced by Frazer, Durkheim, and Freud. Smith himself was not an original scholar, but was rather \""clever at presenting other men's theories\"" within new and sometimes hostile contexts. Smith was an important contributor to two of the most serious challenges to Christian orthodoxy of the last century, the \""Higher Criticism\"" of the Bible and the comparative study of religion, and was also the victim of the last successful heresy trial in Great Britain. Yet he was an utterly devout Protestant, whose views on Biblical criticism (for which he was damned) are now considered as true as his views on totemism and sacrifice (for which he was praised) are now considered false. Despite Smith's enormous significance fo1