Download or read book Maimonides Empire of Light written by Ralph Lerner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2000-10 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the writing of and about the twelfth-century rabbi, philosopher, and theologian Moses Maimonides is addressed to an elite audience of philosophers and intellectuals. Here, Ralph Lerner's exploration of Maimonides' popular writings reveals that the education of the common man was one of the great teacher's chief concerns. Lerner describes the brilliant and sometimes wily ways in which Maimonides sought to break through the despair and superstition that gripped the Jewish people's minds, without sacrificing the dignity and core of his message. These writings—presented here in uncommonly accurate, mostly new translations—also reveal that Maimonides was willing to risk the scorn of his contemporaries to enlighten both his own and future generations. By addressing the writings of Maimonides' disciples, including Shem Tov ben Joseph Ibn Falaquera in the mid-thirteenth century and Joseph Albo in the fifteenth century, Lerner shows how this technique was passed on. In striking contrast to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Maimonides' enlightenment is premised on the inequality of understandings and other differences between the elite and the common people. Instead of scorning the past, Lerner shows, Maimonides' enlightenment invests it with a new and ennobling dignity. A valuable reference for students of political philosophy and Jewish studies, Lerner's elegantly written book also brings to life the richness and relevance of medieval Jewish thought for all those interested in the Jewish tradition.
Download or read book Enlightening Revolutions written by Svetozar Minkov and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays collected in this volume make a serious, enlightened contribution to the history of political philosophy. While offering striking new interpretations of crucial texts and events in the history of the West, they illuminate fundamental questions of politics, religion, and philosophy.
Download or read book The Cultures of Maimonideanism written by James T. Robinson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-04-24 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the history of Jewish thought, no individual scholar has exercised more influence than Maimonides (1138-1204) – philosopher and physician, legal scholar and communal leader. This collection of papers, originating at the 2007 EAJS colloquium, places primary emphasis on this influence – not on Maimonides himself but the many movements he inspired. Using Maimonideanism as an interpretive lens, the authors of this volume – representing a variety of fields and disciplines – develop new approaches to and fresh perspectives on the peculiar dynamic of Judaism and philosophy. Focusing on social and cultural processes as well as philosophical ideas and arguments, they point toward an original reconceptualization of Jewish thought.
Download or read book A Vanished World written by Chris Lowney and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are Muslims, Christians, and Jews forever locked in a cycle of violence and resentment? This work answers this question by chronicling medieval Spain's impossibly panoramic history."--Publisher.
Download or read book Maimonidean Studies written by and published by KTAV Publishing House, Inc.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Faith and Freedom written by Michah Gottlieb and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent renewal of the faith-reason debate has focused attention on earlier episodes in its history. One of its memorable highlights occurred during the Enlightenment, with the outbreak of the "Pantheism Controversy" between the eighteenth century Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the Christian Counter-Enlightenment thinker Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi. While Mendelssohn argued that reason confirmed belief in a providential God and in an immortal soul, Jacobi claimed that its consistent application led ineluctably to atheism and fatalism. At present, there are two leading interpretations of Moses Mendelssohn's thought. One casts him as a Jewish traditionalist who draws on German philosophy to support his premodern Jewish beliefs, while the other portrays him as a secret Deist who seeks to encourage his fellow Jews to integrate into German society and so disingenuously defends Judaism to avoid arousing their opposition. By exploring the Pantheism Controversy and Mendelssohn's relation to his two greatest Jewish philosophical predecessors, the medieval Rabbi Moses Maimonides and the seventeenth century heretic Baruch Spinoza, Michah Gottlieb presents a new reading of Mendelssohn arguing that he defends Jewish religious concepts sincerely, but gives them a humanistic interpretation appropriate to life in a free, diverse modern society. Gottlieb argues that the faith-reason debate is best understood not primarily as an argument about metaphysical questions, such as whether or not God exists, but rather as a contest between two competing conceptions of human dignity and freedom. Mendelssohn, Gottlieb contends, gives expression to a humanistic religious perspective worthy of renewed consideration today.
Download or read book Reason Faith and Politics written by Arthur M. Melzer and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays honoring Werner J. Dannhauser addresses the timeless issue_lately become very timely_of the rivalry between reason and religion, especially as both relate to politics. The essays_by such scholars as Francis Fukuyama, Walter Berns, Jeremy Rabkin, and Ralph Lerner_range widely over Western intellectual history, from classical philosophy and ancient Israel, to the medieval period and the Renaissance, to Nietzsche and contemporary neoconservative thought.
Download or read book Thinking about the Prophets written by Kenneth Seeskin and published by Jewish Publication Society. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking the great literary prophets whose ministry ran from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE—Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, and Job—Thinking about the Prophets examines their often-shocking teachings in light of their times, their influence on later Western and Jewish thinkers, and their enduring lessons for all of us. As a noted scholar of Jewish philosophy, Kenneth Seeskin teases out philosophical, ethical, and theological questions in the writings, such as the nature of moral reasoning, the divine persona, divine providence, the suffering of the innocent, the power of repentance, and what it means to believe in a monotheistic conception of God. Seeskin demonstrates that great ideas are not limited by time or place, but rather once put forth, take on a life of their own. Thus he interweaves the medieval and modern philosophers Maimonides, Kant, Cohen, Buber, Levinas, Heschel, and Soloveitchik, all of whom read the prophets and had important things to say as a result. We come to see the prophets perhaps in equal measure as divinely authorized whistle-blowers and profound thinkers of the human condition. Readers of all levels will find this volume an accessible and provoking introduction to the enduring significance of biblical prophecy.
Download or read book Political Philosophy Cross Examined written by T. Pangle and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political societies frequently regard philosophers as potential threats to morality and religion, and those who speak for politics often demand a defense of philosophy. This book will address philosophy as a mode of existence put into question.
Download or read book Samuel Ibn Tibbon s Commentary on Ecclesiastes written by James T. Robinson and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2007 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel Ibn Tibbon (c. 1165-1232) - the eminent translator, philosopher, and exegete - is most famous for his Hebrew translation of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed . However, he wrote original works as well, and laid the foundations for a distinctive philosophical-exegetical movement, what is today called 'Maimonideanism'. James T. Robinson's book includes a first English translation of Ibn Tibbon's commentary on Ecclesiastes, which was the foundational work of the Maimonidean tradition. The translation, with full annotation, is accompanied by an introduction, which provides relevant historical, philosophical and exegetical background, explains difficult passages, and identifies Ibn Tibbon's important contributions to the emergence of Maimonideanism. The author analyzes Ibn Tibbon's sources and influences (in Jewish philosophy and exegesis and in Graeco-Arabic philosophy, especially al-Farabi and Averroes), discusses his theory and method of exegesis, and explains the main arguments and allegories of the work which relate to the problem of human perfection. Responding to and developing the various positions of his time - especially the infamous view of al-Farabi that immortality of the soul is nothing but an old wife's tale - Ibn Tibbon argues that conjunction with the active intellect is possible but rare: only one man in a thousand can attain it. Thus, while the elite few should pursue it - through a life of study and contemplation - the many should focus on perfection in this world: they should eat, drink, and show the soul good.
Download or read book Leo Strauss and His Legacy written by John Albert Murley and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 958 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With over 10,000 entries, this bibliography is the most comprehensive guide to published writing in the tradition of Leo Strauss, who lived from 1899 to 1973 and was one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. John A. Murley provides Strauss's own complete bibliography and identifies the work of hundreds of Strauss's students, and their students' students. Leo Strauss and His Legacy charts the path of influence of a beloved teacher and mentor, a deep and lasting heritage that permeates the classrooms of the twenty-first century. Each new generation of students of political philosophy will find this bibliography an indispensable resource.
Download or read book Inventing God written by Jon Mills and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this controversial book, philosopher and psychoanalyst Jon Mills argues that God does not exist; and more provocatively, that God cannot exist as anything but an idea. Put concisely, God is a psychological creation signifying ultimate ideality. Mills argues that the idea or conception of God is the manifestation of humanity’s denial and response to natural deprivation; a self-relation to an internalized idealized object, the idealization of imagined value. After demonstrating the lack of any empirical evidence and the logical impossibility of God, Mills explains the psychological motivations underlying humanity’s need to invent a supreme being. In a highly nuanced analysis of unconscious processes informing the psychology of belief and institutionalized social ideology, he concludes that belief in God is the failure to accept our impending death and mourn natural absence for the delusion of divine presence. As an alternative to theistic faith, he offers a secular spirituality that emphasizes the quality of lived experience, the primacy of feeling and value inquiry, ethical self-consciousness, aesthetic and ecological sensibility, and authentic relationality toward self, other, and world as the pursuit of a beautiful soul in search of the numinous. Inventing God will be of interest to academics, scholars, lay audiences and students of religious studies, the humanities, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, among other disciplines. It will also appeal to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and mental health professionals focusing on the integration of humanities and psychoanalysis.
Download or read book Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt written by Joachim J.M.S. Yeshaya and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-11-19 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an edition of secular poems taken from the earliest, fifteenth-century manuscript, this book seeks to evaluate Moses Dar??’s poetry in the light of the Andalusian-Hebrew poetical tradition and within the context of Hebrew literary activity in the Muslim East.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions written by Adam Silverstein and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions includes authoritative yet accessible studies on a wide variety of topics dealing comparatively with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as with the interactions between the adherents of these religions throughout history. The comparative study of the Abrahamic Religions has been undertaken for many centuries. More often than not, these studies reflected a polemical rather than an ecumenical approach to the topic. Since the nineteenth century, the comparative study of the Abrahamic Religions has not been pursued either intensively or systematically, and it is only recently that the comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has received more serious attention. This volume contributes to the emergence and development of the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions, a discipline which is now in its formative stages. This Handbook includes both critical and supportive perspectives on the very concept of the Abrahamic religions and discussions on the role of the figure of Abraham in these religions. It features 32 essays, by the foremost scholars in the field, on the historical interactions between Abrahamic communities; on Holy Scriptures and their interpretation; on conceptions of religious history; on various topics and strands of religious thought, such as monotheism and mysticism; on rituals of prayer, purity, and sainthood, on love in the three religions and on fundamentalism. The volume concludes with three epilogues written by three influential figures in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, to provide a broader perspective on the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions. This ground-breaking work introduces readers to the challenges and rewards of studying these three religions together.
Download or read book Abraham Ibn Ezra The Book of the World written by Shlomo Sela and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume offers the first critical edition of the Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra’s Book of the World, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary. These twin treatises represent the first Hebrew work, unique in medieval Jewish science, to discuss the theories and techniques of historical and meteorological astrology that had accumulated from Antiquity to Ibn Ezra’s time, on the basis of Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic sources. This volume also incorporates the first critical edition, translated and annotated, of MāshāÞallāh’s Book on Eclipses, a work dealing with mundane astrology whose Hebrew translation was ascribed to Ibn Ezra, as well as a study of three brief texts in which Ibn Ezra conveyed his own opinion about mundane astrology.
Download or read book Abraham Ibn Ezra the Book of the World written by Avraham ben Meʼir Ibn ʻEzra and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume offers the first critical edition of the Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra s Book of the World, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary. These twin treatises represent the first Hebrew work, unique in medieval Jewish science, to discuss the theories and techniques of historical and meteorological astrology that had accumulated from Antiquity to Ibn Ezra s time, on the basis of Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic sources. This volume also incorporates the first critical edition, translated and annotated, of M sh Þall h s Book on Eclipses, a work dealing with mundane astrology whose Hebrew translation was ascribed to Ibn Ezra, as well as a study of three brief texts in which Ibn Ezra conveyed his own opinion about mundane astrology.
Download or read book Menachem Kellner Jewish Universalism written by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
