Ethical Monotheism

Ethical Monotheism
Author: Ehud Benor
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351263943

The term Ethical Monotheism is an important marker in Judaism’s tumultuous transition into the modern era. The term emerged in the context of culture-wars concerning the question of whether or not Jews could or should become emancipated citizens of modern European states. It appeared in arguments whether or not Judaism could be considered a Religion of Reason—a symbolic, motivational representation of a universal morality, and in debates about whether or not Judaism could or should reform itself into a Religion of Reason. This book is both a decisive departure from such discussions and an attempt to add a further, post-modern, statement to their ongoing development. As departure, it refuses to take for granted a philosophical conception of Religion of Reason as the standard for Ethical Monotheism according to which Judaism was to be evaluated or reformed. As continuation, the book undertakes a phenomenology of Jewish modes of ethical religiosity that allows it to inquire what kind of ethical monotheism Judaism might be. Through sophisticated analysis of select "snapshots," or "fragments of a hologram," guided by a robust theory of religion, the author discloses Judaic ethical monotheism as an ongoing wrestling with the meaning of justice. By closely examining five main "snapshots" of this long process—the Bible, rabbinic Judaism, Maimonides, The Zohar, and the modern philosophers, Buber and Levinas—the author offers his own constructive philosophy of Judaism and his own distinctive philosophy of religion. Ethical Monotheism offers a new way to think about Judaism as a religion and as a coherent philosophical debate, and demonstrates the need to integrate philosophy, history, cognitive psychology, anthropology, theology, and history of science in the study of "religion."

Monotheism and Tolerance

Monotheism and Tolerance
Author: Robert Erlewine
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2010-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253221560

Monotheism and Tolerance suggests a way to deal with the intractable problem of religiously motivated and justified violence.

Monotheism & Ethics

Monotheism & Ethics
Author: Y. Tzvi Langermann
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2011-11-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004194290

Fourteen essays by leading scholars from around the world explore the theological, philosophical, and historical connections between the three Abrahamic faiths and ethics. Timely reading for students of religion, philosophy, and ethics.

Idolatry and Representation

Idolatry and Representation
Author: Leora Batnitzky
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2009-07-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1400823587

Although Franz Rosenzweig is arguably the most important Jewish philosopher of the twentieth century, his thought remains little understood. Here, Leora Batnitzky argues that Rosenzweig's redirection of German-Jewish ethical monotheism anticipates and challenges contemporary trends in religious studies, ethics, philosophy, anthropology, theology, and biblical studies. This text, which captures the hermeneutical movement of Rosenzweig's corpus, is the first to consider the full import of the cultural criticism articulated in his writings on the modern meanings of art, language, ethics, and national identity. In the process, the book solves significant conundrums about Rosenzweig's relation to German idealism, to other major Jewish thinkers, to Jewish political life, and to Christianity, and brings Rosenzweig into conversation with key contemporary thinkers. Drawing on Rosenzweig's view that Judaism's ban on idolatry is the crucial intellectual and spiritual resource available to respond to the social implications of human finitude, Batnitzky interrogates idolatry as a modern possibility. Her analysis speaks not only to the question of Judaism's relationship to modernity (and vice versa), but also to the generic question of the present's relationship to the past--a subject of great importance to anyone contemplating the modern statuses of religious tradition, reason, science, and historical inquiry. By way of Rosenzweig, Batnitzky argues that contemporary philosophers and ethicists must relearn their approaches to religious traditions and texts to address today's central ethical problems.

Radical Monotheism and Western Culture

Radical Monotheism and Western Culture
Author: Helmut Richard Niebuhr
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664253264

This reissue of a classic work of H. Richard Niebuhr, one of the most influential and creative theological ethicists of the twentieth century, highlights his mature thinking. By using path-breaking interpretations of faith as a basic dimension of human life and culture as an arena of faith in conflict, Niebuhr encourages further thought. This volume should be required reading for anyone interested in recent perspectives on theology and ethics. The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.

Beyond Monotheism

Beyond Monotheism
Author: Laurel Schneider
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2007-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135947821

Beyond Monotheism is an absorbing and lyrical exploration of the possibility of a new, living theology of multiplicity that is grounded in fluidity, change and incarnation.

The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man

The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man
Author: Henri Frankfort
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2013-06-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 022611256X

The people in ancient times the phenomenal world was teeming with life; the thunderclap, the sudden shadow, the unknown and eerie clearing in the wood, all were living things. This unabridged edition traces the fascinating history of thought from the pre-scientific, personal concept of a "humanized" world to the achievement of detached intellectual reasoning. The authors describe and analyze the spiritual life of three ancient civilizations: the Egyptians, whose thinking was profoundly influenced by the daily rebirth of the sun and the annual rebirth of the Nile; the Mesopotamians, who believed the stars, moon, and stones were all citizens of a cosmic state; and the Hebrews, who transcended prevailing mythopoeic thought with their cosmogony of the will of God. In the concluding chapter the Frankforts show that the Greeks, with their intellectual courage, were the first culture to discover a realm of speculative thought in which myth was overcome.

Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present

Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present
Author: Wendell S. Dietrich
Publisher:
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2001
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

In the spirit of Dietrich's work, essays by colleagues and former students of the Brown U. professor emeritus explore the boundaries of ethical monotheistic religion historically and as a constructive resource for contemporary religious and ethical thought. Ethical monotheism, the view that monotheistic religion developed toward the prophets' central concern with individual and corporate moral behavior, has dominated modern religious thought since Kant. Dietrich traced its development in Jewish and Christian contexts in his classic monograph Cohen and Troeltsch and other works. c. Book News Inc.

The Idea of Monotheism

The Idea of Monotheism
Author: Jack Shechter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: God (Judaism).
ISBN: 9780761870432

Jack Shechter explores the idea of monotheism as it has evolved over the centuries: the belief in the existence of the One God who fashioned the world and remains involved in it and with humanity and its values.

Justice for All

Justice for All
Author: Jeremiah Unterman
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0827612702

"Demonstrates how the Jewish Bible radically changed the course of ethical thought and as a result has had enormous influence on later Jewish thought and law, as well as on Christianity and the development of modern Western civilization"--