"It should be argued that Judaism is one of the pillars of Western civilization, but that it was neglected for a long time because of certain religious polemics," he said.

Defoe had written political and religious polemics prior to Robinson Crusoe, and he worked as a journalist during and after its composition.

This led to overt or covert attempts to turn the text into an instrument of religious polemics or a summary of confessional orthodoxy.

Do not expect from him any religious polemics; he abhorred them; what he really cherished was the idea of a sort of cooperation of the various Christian bodies against the negations of infidelity.

The religious toleration and amity so critical to American society is exquisitely delicate and cannot withstand sustained public exchanges of religious polemic.

At this epoch he took an active part in religious polemics and wrote works of controversy, anti-Calvinist and anti-jansenist pamphlets.

Thereafter, a particularly Scottish historiography languished - whether in a romanticised nostalgia for a lost identity, or in continuing religious polemics.

Because the history of science has become embroiled in religious polemics, it is important to appreciate that the chauvinism appears not only between religions but within them.

That Gildas' mention of the appeal is a minor part of a much larger religious polemic however, means that the image described may be more hyperbolic than realistic, especially as his sources were probably derived from oral tradition.

Indeed, his works are devoted in large part to religious, political, and even bibliographical polemics.