Renaissance Philosophy in Jewish garb : foundations and challenges in Judaism on the eve of modernity /
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Based on several years of research on Jewish intellectual life in the Renaissance, this book tries to distinguish the coordinates of "modernity" as premises of Jewish philosophy, and vice versa. In the first part, it is concerned with the foundations of Jewish philosophy, its nature as philosophical science and as wisdom. The second part is devoted to certain elements and challenges of the humanist and Renaissance period as reflected in Judaism: historical consciousness and the sciences, utopian tradition, the legal status of the Jews in Christian political tradition and in Jewish political thought, aesthetic concepts of the body and conversion.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [255]-270) and index. :
9789047425281 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A history of modern Jewish religious philosophy.
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The culmination of Eliezer Schweid's life-work as a Jewish intellectual historian, this five-volume work provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the major thinkers and movements in modern Jewish thought, in the context of general philosophy and Jewish social-political historical developments, with extensive primary source excerpts. Volume Two, \'The Birth of the Jewish Historical Studies and the Modern Jewish Religious Movements,\' discusses the major Jewish thinkers of central and eastern Europe before 1881, in connection with the movements they fostered: German-Jewish Wissenschaft (Zunz), Reform (Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Geiger), Neo-Orthodoxy (S. D. Luzzatto, Steinheim, Samson Raphael Hirsch), Positive-Historical (Frankel, Graetz), and Neo-Haredi (Kalischer, Malbim, Hayyim Volozhiner, Salanter). In addition, extensive attention is given to the thinkers of the east-European Haskalah, both earlier (Levinsohn, Rubin, Schorr, Mieses, Abraham Krochmal) and later proto-Zionist thinkers (Zweifel, Smolenskin, Pines, Lilienblum).
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1 online resource (xii, 330 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004290372 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A history of modern Jewish religious philosophy .
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The culmination of Eliezer Schweid's life-work as Jewish intellectual historian, this five-volume work provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the major thinkers and movements in modern Jewish thought, in the context of general philosophy and Jewish social-political historical developments. A major theme of the work is the response of Jewish thought to the rise and crisis of Western humanism from the 17th through the 20th centuries. Volume One, "The Period of the Enlightenment," includes a methodological introduction to the larger work, as well as thorough presentations of Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Maimon, Ascher, Wessely, Schnaber and Krochmal. Capsule essays on Kant, Hegel, and Schelling highlight the issues they raise that would be of crucial importance for Jewish thought. \'Schweid introduces the reader to many writers and thinkers who pioneered a new approach toward Jewish law and lore [...]. This is a work which should be in every university and seminary library.\' Morton J. Merowitz, Librarian and independent scholar, Buffalo, NY (AJL Reviews, Nov/Dec 2011)
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1 online resource (xv, 361 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004207349 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A History of Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy : Volume III:The Crisis of Humanism /
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The culmination of Eliezer Schweid's life-work as a Jewish intellectual historian, this five-volume work provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the major thinkers and movements in modern Jewish thought, in the context of general philosophy and Jewish social-political historical developments, with extensive primary source excerpts. Volume Three, "The Crisis of Humanism," commences with an important essay on the challenge to the humanist tradition posed in the late 19th century by historical materialism, existentialism and positivism. This is background for the constructive philosophies which sought at the same time to address the general crisis of moral value and provide a positive basis for Jewish existence. Among the thinkers presented in this volume are Moses Hess, Moritz Lazarus, Hermann Cohen (in impressive depth, with a thorough exposition of the Ethics and Religion of Reason ), Ahad Ha-Am, I. J. Reines, Simon Dubnow, M. Y. Berdiczewski, the theorists of the Bund, Chaim Zhitlovsky, Nachman Syrkin, and Ber Borochov.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004380608 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A History of Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy : Volume IV: The Crisis of Humanism (II). The End of the Jewish Center in Germany /
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The last generation of German Jewish philosophers brought the long, tragic history of German-Jewish creative thought to a close in a blaze of glory, while transitioning to the new Jewish creative centers in Israel and America. The best known (Buber, Rosenzweig, Baeck, Strauss, Scholem) and the less known (Breuer, Birnbaum, Klatzkin, Aviad-Wolfsberg, Guttmann) are thoroughly explicated here, with generous primary text citations appearing in English for the first time, making this a rich sourcebook and reference for the thinkers presented.
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1 online resource :
9789004533127
9789004533134
The classic Jewish philosophers : from Saadia through the Renaissance /
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This book provides a standard reference of the major medieval Jewish philosophers, as well as an eminently readable narrative of the course of medieval Jewish philosophical thought, presented as a response to the spiritual-intellectual challenges facing Judaism in that period. The accounts of Saadia, Bahya, Halevi, Maimonides, and Crescas are among the fullest available in English. Other thinkers discussed in depth include Israeli, Ibn Gabirol, Gersonides, and Albo; the work also includes capsule summaries of Bar Hiyya, Falaquera, Albalag, Duran, Abravanel and others. All of the summaries place the philosophical thought of these important thinkers in the context of the historical challenges and religious concerns of their age. This book is also available in paperback.
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Originally published as ha-Filosofim ha-gedolim shelanu, Miskal/Yediot Aharonot Books, 1999. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-474) and indexes. :
9789047423522 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The beginning of the world in Renaissance Jewish thought : Ma'aseh bereshit in Italian Jewish philosophy and kabbalah, 1492-1535 /
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In The Beginning of the World in Renaissance Jewish Thought , Brian Ogren offers a deep analysis of late fifteenth century Italian Jewish thought concerning the creation of the world and the beginning of time. Ogren's book is the very first to seriously juxtapose the thought of the great Jewish thinker Yohanan Alemanno, Alemanno's famed Christian interlocutor, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the important Iberian exegete active in Italy, Isaac Abravanel, and Abravanel's renowned philosopher son Judah, known as Leone Ebreo. By bringing these thinkers together, this book presents a new understanding of early modern uses of Jewish texts and hermeneutics. Ogren successfully demonstrates that the syntheses of philosophy and Kabbalah carried out by these four intellectuals in their quests to understand the beginning itself marked a new beginning in Western thought, characterized by simultaneous continuity and rupture.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004330634 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A Jewish philosopher of Baghdad : 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and his writings /
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For a long time, the study of the life and work of the Jewish thinker ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) remained limited to a very small number of texts. Interest in Ibn Kammūna in the Western Christian world dates back to the 17th century, when Barthélemy d'Herbelot (1624-1695) included information on two of Ibn Kammūna's works - his examination of the three faiths ( Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāt ), id est Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and his commentary on Avicenna's al-Ishārāt wa l-tanbīhā t - in his Bibliothèque orientale . Subsequent generations of Western scholars were focused on Ibn Kammūna's Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth , whereas his fame in the Eastern lands of Islam was based exclusively on his philosophical writings. These include a commentary on the Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt by the founder of Illumationist philosophy, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and numerous independent works on philosophy and logic. Since most of the manuscripts of Ibn Kammūna's philosophical writings are located in the public and private libraries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, they were (and are) out of reach for the majority of Western scholars. The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of Ibn Kammūna's biography, provides an outline of his philosophcial thought and studies in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on the extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.
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Includes editions of 9 texts by Ibn Kammuna, in Arabic. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-263) and indexes. :
9789047409632 :
0169-8729 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Zwischen Philosophie und Gesetz : Jüdische philosophie und theologie von 1933 bis 1938 /
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Despite the revival of intellectual history in recent years, there is still relatively little research into German-Jewish intellectual history between 1933 and 1938. The present work studies for the first time the important discussions of the period from the debate between Leo Strauss and Julius Guttmann, Alexander Altmann's contribution to "Jewish theology," to the reception of the work of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger as well as the works of David Baumgardt and Fritz Heinemann. Many now forgotten texts of those discussions have been made accessible here. All the leading figures presented in this study were sooner or later forced to choose between "philosophy" and "law."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-334). :
9789047442745 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum : An Analysis of Her Diaries and Letters.
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In The Existential Philosophy of Etty Hillesum Meins G.S. Coetsier breaks new ground by demonstrating the Jewish existential nature of Etty Hillesum's spiritual and cultural life in light of the writings of Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Hillesum's diaries and letters, written between 1941 and 1943, illustrate her struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of the Second World War and the Shoah. By finding God under the rubble of the horrors, she rediscovers the divine presence between humankind, while taking up responsibility for the Other as a way to embrace justice and compassion. In a fascinating, accessible and thorough study, Coetsier dispels much of the confusion that assails readers when they are exposed to the bewildering range of Christian and Jewish influences and other cultural interpretations of her writings. The result is a convincing and profound picture of Etty Hillesum's path to spiritual freedom.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 635 pages, [7] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
9789004266100 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Michael L. Morgan : history and moral normativity /
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Michael L. Morgan is an Emeritus Chancellor Professor at Indiana University and the Senator Jerahmiel S. and Carole S. Grafstein Visiting Chair in Jewish Philosophy at the University of Toronto. On the faculty of Indiana University for his entire career, he has also held Visiting Professorships at the Australian Catholic University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Yale University. A historian of philosophy informed by the continental and analytic philosophical traditions, Morgan has reflected on the key challenge of our day: how is objectivity possible in light of the historicity of human life? An interpreter of both "Athens" and "Jerusalem," Morgan has written on ancient Greek philosophy, modern Jewish philosophy, post-Holocaust theology and ethics, Zionism, and Messianism.
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Articles previously published. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004326514 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Tradition vs. traditionalism : contemporary perspectives in Jewish thought.
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This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present's unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing through an ongoing dialogue between present and past. The Jewish philosophers discussed in this work-Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, David Hartman, and Eliezer Goldman-ascribe compelling canonic status to the tradition, and the analysis of their thought discloses the tension between these two models. The book carefully traces the course they have plotted along the various interpretations of tradition through their approach to Scripture and to Halakhah.
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1 online resource (235 pages) :
9789401206426 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rabbinic discourse as a system of knowledge : "the study of Torah is equal to them all" /
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In Rabbinic Discourse as a System of Knowledge Hannah Hashkes employs contemporary philosophy in describing rabbinic reasoning as a rational response to experience. Hashkes combines insights from the philosophy of Quine and Davidson with the semiotics of Peirce to construe knowledge as systematic reasoning occurring within a community of inquiry. Her reading of the works of Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion allows her to create a philosophical bridge between a discourse of God and a discourse of reason. This synthesis of pragmatism, hermeneutics and theology provides Hashkes with a sophisticated tool to understand Rabbinic Judaism. It also makes this study both unique and pathbreaking in contemporary Jewish philosophy and Rabbinic thought.
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1 online resource (xiii, 280 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-271) and index. :
9789004290488 :
2210-481X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Elliot R. Wolfson : poetic thinking /
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Elliot R. Wolfson is Professor of Religious Studies and the Marsha and Jay Glazer Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A scholar of Jewish mysticism and philosophy, he uses the textual sources of Judaism to examine universal philosophical topics such as the function and processes of the imagination, the paradoxes of temporality, and the mystery of poetic language. Working at the intersection of disciplines and refusing to reduce texts to their simple historical contexts, Wolfson puts texts spanning diverse temporal, cultural, and religious periods in creative counterpoint. His sensitivity to language reveals its fragility as it simultaneously points to the uncertainty of meaning. The result is a creative reading of both Judaism and philosophy that informs and is informed by poetic sensibility and philosophical hermeneutics.
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1 online resource (xv, 254 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004291058 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Eliezer Schweid : the responsibility of Jewish philosophy /
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This volume features Eliezer Schweid's philosophy of Judaism for a secular age. The volume brings together four of Schweid's most original and influential philosophical essays and an interview with him that together express his fundamental outlook: the faith of a secular Jew, freely choosing loyalty to his or her national culture and drawing on Jewish heritage to inform how to act responsibly toward one's neighbor, one's people, the world, and God. The themes span the gamut of Schweid's life work: the existential loneliness of the modern Jew; Judaism as a culture; faith in light of the Holocaust; and appreciation for secular humanism with awareness of its shortcomings, given the enduring legacy of the Jewish biblical heritage.
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Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 26, 2013). :
1 online resource (xiii, 256 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004249790 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
David Shatz : Torah, philosophy, and culture /
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David Shatz is the Ronald P. Stanton University Professor of Philosophy, Ethics, and Religious Thought at Yeshiva University. With rabbinic ordination earned at Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. with distinction in philosophy from Columbia University, Shatz is committed to integrating Judaism and secular wisdom. An analytic philosopher as well as a Jewish philosopher, he has written extensively on free will, ethics, epistemology, medieval and modern Jewish philosophy, and philosophy of religion. His writings cover such topics as autonomy, altruism, philosophical skepticism, science and Judaism, peer review, theodicy, biblical interpretation, Maimonides, modern rabbinic figures, messianism, fanaticism, religious diversity, and theology. Shatz is also editor of the MeOtzar HoRav series, which publishes manuscripts of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and is editor of the Torah u-Madda Journal .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004326484 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Apophasis and Envisioning the Invisible : Unveiling Veils of Infinity /
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In this monograph, two of the most complicated theoretical topics confronting the scholar of mysticism (apophasis and infinity) are tackled. Writing about apophasis presents a unique dilemma as the term itself connotes the inability of language to name the namelessness of ultimate reality. Yet, the apophatic is a gesture of speaking-not, which entails saying the unsayable, as opposed to not speaking, which is the reticence appropriate to silence. The exploration of infinity presents an equally daunting demand as the intellect embarking on this path is summoned to circumscribe the uncircumscribable. Just as communicating the incommunicable is an endless enterprise of speaking the unspeakable, so mapping infinity is an unremitting pursuit of delimiting the limitless. The two subjects thus intersect at the vanishing point where the human mind reaches its limit by confronting the limitlessness that can be described only as indescribable.
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1 online resource (661 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004744363
Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy, 1180-1240 /
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Although Maimonides is now known as one of the greatest Jewish theologians and philosophers of the middle ages, his writings were denounced from the outset - first in the East then in the West. In fact, by the mid-1230's the so-called Maimonidean Controversy that had begun within the Jewish community had spread to encompass much of the Christian scholarly world as well. Daniel Silver's Maimonidean Criticism constitutes a landmark in the historiography of Maimonideanism in general and of the controversy of the 1230s in particular. Brill has thus brought this important book back into print for students wishing an introduction to this debate.
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1 online resource (226 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004672543
Jonathan Sacks : universalizing particularity /
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This volume features the thought and writings of Jonathan Sacks, one of today's leading Jewish public thinkers. It brings together an intellectual portrait, four of his most original and influential philosophical essays, and an interview with him. This volume showcases the work of Sacks, a philosopher who seeks to confront and offer solutions to the numerous problems besetting Judaism and its confrontation with modernity. In addition, the reader will also encounter an important social philosopher and proponent of interfaith dialogue, who articulates how it is possible to cultivate a culture of civility based on the twin notions of the dignity of difference and the ethic of responsibility. Jonathan Sacks has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from September 1991 to September 2013 and a member of the House of Lords since 2009.
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1 online resource (xiii, 147 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-147). :
9789004249813 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Menachem Kellner : Jewish universalism /
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Menachem Kellner is an American-born scholar of Jewish philosophy, an educator, and a public intellectual who lives in Israel. For over three decades he taught at the University of Haifa, where he held the Sir Isaac and Lady Edith Wolfson Chair of Jewish Religious Thought as well as several high-level administrative positions. Currently he teaches Jewish philosophy at Shalem College, Israel's first liberal arts college, which seeks to integrate Western and Jewish texts. Trained in ethics and political philosophy, Kellner specializes in medieval Jewish philosophy, arguing that Maimonides' rationalist universalism should serve as the ideal for contemporary Jewish life. Creatively fusing Zionism, modern Orthodoxy, and democracy, his vision of Judaism is open to and engaged with the modern world.
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1 online resource (xvi, 196 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004298286 :
2213-6010 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.