The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: The Modern Era

Description

The second volume of The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy provides a comprehensive overview of Jewish philosophy from the seventeenth century to the present day. Written by a distinguished group of experts in the field, its essays examine how Jewish thinking was modified in its encounter with modern Europe and America and challenge longstanding assumptions about the nature and purpose of modern Jewish philosophy. The volume also treats modern Jewish philosophy's continuities with premodern texts and thinkers, the relationship between philosophy and theology, the ritual and political life of the people of Israel and the ways in which classic modern philosophical categories help or hinder Jewish self-articulation. These essays offer readers a multi-faceted understanding of the Jewish philosophical enterprise in the modern period.

Martin Kavka is Associate Professor of Religion at Florida State University. He is the author of Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy (2004), which was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Philosophy and Jewish Thought by the Association for Jewish Studies in 2008. DAVID NOVAK holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies as Professor of the Study of Religion and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the author of fifteen books in Jewish philosophy, including In Defense of Religious Liberty (2009), containing lectures given while he was the Charles E. Test Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Princeton University. ZACHARY BRAITERMAN is Associate Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. He is the author of (God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought (1998) and The Shape of Revelation: Aesthetics and Modern Jewish Thought (2007).

'This volume offers a 'big-tent' approach to the semantic and substantive questions of the overlapping categories of modern Jewish thought, theology, and philosophy ... a generous view of the boundaries of the field lead to inclusion of themes and thinkers too often left out in earlier outlines of the 'canon', such as the theme of aesthetics, the contributions of Eastern European thinkers, and the relationship to the medievals. The book is organized thematically, and assumes a basic familiarity with the central figures in the history of Jewish thought in the modern period. It is a wise organizational choice that leads to fresh readings and pairings.' Religious Studies Review