Anton van Dale
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Anton van Dale (Anthonie, Antonius) (1638-1708) was a Dutch Mennonite preacher, physician and writer on religious subjects, described by the contemporary theologian Jean Le Clerc as an enemy of superstition[1]. He was a critic of witch-hunting[2].
His De oraculis veterum ethnicorum dissertationes (1683) was an influential work on oracles, which he argued against the supernatural and the role of the Devil[3] in the pagan oracular tradition. In this he was followed two decades later by Fontenelle, who wrote his Histoire des oracles as an adaptation and popularized version of van Dale's work.
[edit] Works
- De oraculis veterum ethnicorum dissertationes (1683)
- Dissertationes de origine ac progressu Idolatriae et Superstitionum, de vera ac falsa Prophetia, uti et de Divinationibus Idolatricis Judaeorum (1696)
- Commentatio super Aristeam de LXX interpretibus (1705)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic (1995), p. 925.
- ^ Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Hilary Marland, Hans de Waardt, Illness and Healing Alternatives in Western Europe (1997), p. 74.
- ^ The History of the Devil: The Abolition of Witch-Prosecution
