ABSTRACT
Among the Jews, a major opponent of Greek rationalism was Samuel David Luzzatto. As a "religious traditionalist", he opposed both the Enlightenment and the Reform Movement of Judaism. The Jewish version of the debate over rationalism, popularly identified as the Maimonidean Controversy, preceded the birth of Moses Maimonides and continues on today in religious circles. As did Rousseau, he thought that reason without the emotions was an insufficient guide for behavior. When Shadal was a young adult, Italy fell under Austrian control, and the Emperor Francis I ordered that Jewish schools expand their curricula to include even more secular subjects. Shadal's Romanticism was most directly influenced by the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although not overtly Christian, Rousseau's antirationalism still conforms to the linear, three-part archetypal pattern of the Christian narrative: creation, fall, and redemption. Intellectually, Shadal agreed with most of Rousseau's philosophy.
