Renan, Joseph Ernest, 1823-1892 (French Orientalist and Semitic scholar)
Dates
- Existence: 1823 - 1892
Biography
Joseph Ernest Renan was born in Brittany to a fishing family and was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of his home town. He was selected to attend the ecclesiastical college of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris. In 1840, Renan moved on to study philosophy at the seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux with a passion for Catholic scholasticism. In 1884, he entered the college of St Sulpice to earn a degree in philology and Hebrew. He became a teacher at Crouzet's school for boys.
Renan was renowned in his lifetime for his work 'Life of Jesus' (1863), which argued that Jesus purified himself of Judaism and became an Aryan Christian. He also wrote several works on politics, democracy, nationalism and national identity. His influential definition of a nation was given in his 1882 discourse 'What is a Nation?'. He became an Orientalist and Semitic scholar, and was among the first scholars to advance the now-discredited Khazar theory. This held that Ashkenazi Jews were descendants of the Khazars, who were Turkic peoples who had adopted Jewish religion and migrated to Western Europe following the collapse of their khanate.
In 1856, Renan married Cornélie Scheffer. The couple had two children, Ary and Noémi Renan.
Found in 3 Collections and/or Records:
2 copies of a letter from Ernest Renan to unknown, possibly James Lorimer, 13 December 1872
2 copies of a letter in French from Ernest Renan to unknown, possibly James Lorimer, on the subject of the concept of democracy in France, dated 13 December 1872. Mark on top left indicates that the original version of this letter is 'on desk in Professor's room'.
Envelope addressed to James Lorimer from Ernest Renan, 14 December 1872
Envelope in French from Ernest Renan, addressed to James Lorimer at his 91 Hill Street residence where he lived while he was Regius Professor of Public Law at the University of Edinburgh, dated 14 December 1872.
Letter from [Edin] Nesttake to James Lorimer, 19 January 1873
Letter in English from [Edin] Nesttake to James Lorimer critiquing Ernest Renan's writing and the concept of authority, 19 January 1873.