ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the interactions between Margaret Cavendish and the religion of her birth, that is, Christianity as defined by the Church of England. It explores some intriguing threads suggested by her scattered allusions to Jews and Judaism, in the hope of encouraging scholars to pursue other aspects of Cavendish's relationship with her non-Christian contemporaries. Cavendish was aware that Judaism, like Islam and Christianity, was a strictly monotheistic religion. In real life, Cavendish could, and did, compose her own 'poetical cabbala' in the form of the imaginary Blazing World itself. Cabbala studies for Cavendish represented not only the potential for natural magic, but also the prospect of 'mathematical magic' based on the Jewish gematria supplemented by a hodge-podge of neo-Pythagorean numerological lore. Economic interactions between Christians and Jews took place at every level of society, from royal courts and world markets down to the level of parish finances.
