Dr. Sluis’s Articles in Reverse Chronological Order

Jacob van Sluis,

“Verlicht en Verdraagzaam? De kerkelijke sluipwegen van grietman G.F. thoe Schwartzenberg en Hohenlansberg”, Vroomheid tussen Vlie en Lauwers. Aspecten van de Friese kerkgeschiedenis, eds. S. Zijlstra, G.N.M. Vis & D.J.M. Zeinstra [Bijdragen van de Vereniging van Nederlandse Kerkgeschiedenis, 8] (Delft: Eburon, 1996): 149-170.

Abstract: In 1764 a Dutch translation of Voltaire’s “Traîté de la tolérance” was published and immediately forbidden by the authorities of the Province of Friesland. It was a part of a controversy on toleration in the Dutch Reformed Church, engaged by the pastor G. Th. de Cock, and supported by the mayor of his county, G.F. thoe Schwartzenberg en Hohenlansberg.

Jacob van Sluis,

“Bibliographie van Deventer disputaties 1630-1811”, Deventer denkers: De Geschiedenis Van Het Wijsgerig Onderwijs Te Deventer (Uitgeverij VerLoren): 213-226.

Jacob van Sluis,

“Twee Rotterdamse disputaties van Pierre Bayle, 1689 en 1690”, Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte in Nederland. Documentatieblad van de Werkgroep Sassen 14 (2003): 209-247.

Jacob van Sluis,

“Fiksche moderne klappen voor Lolke: Hervormd Berlikum in de negentiende eeuw”, Kerk en conflict. Identiteitskwesties in de geschiedenis van het christendom, eds. W. Otten & W.J. van Asselt [Utrechtse studies, 3] (Zoetermeer: Meinema, 2002): 166-183.

Abstract: Description of the religious controversies in the local protestant church of the town Berlikum, in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands, in the second half of the 19th century.

Jacob van Sluis,

“Cartesian physics in two unknown disputations by Pierre Bayle”, Bijdragen 61 (2000): 123-135.

Abstract: Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) was professor of philosophy at the Illustrious School in Rotterdam from 1681 until 1693. Little is known about his courses there. However, the discovery of two disputations, “Theses philosophicae,” which were defended by students under his supervision, makes clear that he taught elementary Cartesian physics in a rather orthodox way. It is obvious that he did not change the course which he had given in Sedan in 1677, and which was published under the title “Cours de philosophie” in Volume 4 of his Œuvres diverses (La Haye, 1727-1731).

Jacob van Sluis,

“Balthasar Bekker in 1683: Comets, Travelling and the Early Enlightenment”, De Achttiende Eeuw 30 (1998) 2.

Abstract: The present essay analyses two texts from 1683 as part of a biographical sketch of Balthasar Bekker (1634-1698), minister of the Reformed Church in Amsterdam. The first text is Bekker’s Ondersoek van de betekeninge der kometen (“Investigation in the meaning of comets”), written after the appearance of a few comets, followed by panic and the raise of superstition within his congregation. He is quite sceptical about various contemporary philosophical and scientific explanations for the appearance of comets. Since, according to the Holy Scripture, comets are not omens given by God, neither as warnings nor as exhortations to repentance. A comparison with Pierre Bayle’s Pensées diverses sur la comètes, a book on the same issue published in the same year 1683, shows that Bekker wrote his book in his capacity as minister, in order to eliminate superstition and to strengthen the true belief in the real God. The second text is the diary of the journey Bekker made in the summer of 1683. Accompanied by three friends Bekker travelled in a two-month-trip to England and France. The recently published diary shows that this was a holiday-trip. However, the text also shows that Bekker could be as critical of the things he saw and persons he met while on holiday as he was of superstition and of common prejudices about comets. Both in the daily practice as a minister and in his role as traveller his attitude reflects the ideas of the Early Enlightenment.