Nietzsche, Soloveitchik and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy PDF Download

Author: Daniel Rynhold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107109035
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
Presents Soloveitchik's philosophy as a conceptual response to Nietzsche's critique of religion that brings Nietzsche's life-affirming sensibility to halakhic Judaism.

Author: Heshey Zelcer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000368777
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Providing a concise but comprehensive overview of Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s larger philosophical program, this book studies one of the most important modern Orthodox Jewish thinkers. It incorporates much relevant biographical, philosophical, religious, legal, and historical background so that the content and difficult philosophical concepts are easily accessible. The volume describes his view of Jewish law (Halakhah) and how he takes the view to answer the fundamental question of Jewish philosophy, the question of the "reasons" for the commandments. It shows how numerous of his disparate books, essays, and lectures on law, specific commandments, and Jewish religious phenomenology, can be woven together to form an elegant philosophical program. It also provides an analysis and summary of Soloveitchik’s views on Zionism and on interreligious dialogue and the contexts for Soloveitchik’s respective stances on two issues that were pressing in his role as a leader of a major branch of post-war Orthodox Judaism. The book provides a synoptic overview of the philosophical works of Joseph B. Soloveitchik. It will be of interest to historians and scholars studying neo-Kantian philosophy, Jewish thought and philosophy of religion.

Author: David Ohana
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042978161X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsche’s powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most important Jewish thinkers who utilized Nietzsche’s writings in crafting the intellectual foundations of Jewish modern political theology. These figures’ political convictions ranged from orthodox conservatism to pacifist anarchism, and their attitude towards Nietzsche’s ideas varied from enthusiastic embrace to ambivalence and outright rejection. By bringing these diverse figures together, the book makes a convincing argument about Nietzsche’s importance for key figures of early Zionism and modern Jewish political thought. The present study offers a new interpretation of a particular theological position which is called "heretical religiosity." Only with modernity and, paradoxically, with rapid secularization, did one find "heretical religiosity" at full strength. Nietzsche enabled intellectual Jews to transform the foundation of their political existence. It provides a new perspective on the adaptation of Nietzsche’s philosophy in the age of Jewish national politics, and at the same time is a case study in the intellectual history of the modern Jewry. This new reading on Nietzsche’s work is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in philosophy, Jewish history and political theology.

Author: William Kolbrener
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253022320
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Joseph Soloveitchik (1903–1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, philosopher, and theologian. In this new work, William Kolbrener takes on Soloveitchik’s controversial legacy and shows how he was torn between the traditionalist demands of his European ancestors and the trajectory of his own radical and often pluralist philosophy. A portrait of this self-professed "lonely man of faith" reveals him to be a reluctant modern who responds to the catastrophic trauma of personal and historical loss by underwriting an idiosyncratic, highly conservative conception of law that is distinct from his Talmudic predecessors, and also paves the way for a return to tradition that hinges on the ethical embrace of multiplicity. As Kolbrener melds these contradictions, he presents Soloveitchik as a good deal more complicated and conflicted than others have suggested. The Last Rabbi affords new perspective on the thought of this major Jewish philosopher and his ideas on the nature of religious authority, knowledge, and pluralism.

Author: Alan T. Levenson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0742546063
Category : Judaism
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Highlighting well-known Jewish thinkers from a very wide spectrum of opinion, the author addresses a range of issues, including: What makes a thinker Jewish? What makes modern Jewish thought modern? How have secular Jews integrated Jewish traditional thought with agnosticism? What do Orthodox thinkers have to teach non-Orthodox Jews and vice versa? Each chapter includes a short, judiciously chosen selection from the given author, along with questions to guide the reader through the material. Short biographical essays at the end of each chapter offer the reader recommendations for further readings and provide the low-down on which books are worth the reader's while. Introduction to Modern Jewish Thinkers represents a decade of the author's experience teaching students ranging from undergraduate age to their seventies. This is an ideal textbook for undergraduate classes.

Author: Marc Angel
Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
ISBN: 9780881255782
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
His contributions have inspired his many students and others to revisit his writings and lectures in order to better fathom his work. This collection of essays provides a panoramic view of the many vital subjects on which he held forth, and thus is a superb introduction to the work of this remarkable figure.

Author: Robert Erlewine
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253022398
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Grappling with the place of Jewish philosophy at the margin of religious studies, Robert Erlewine examines the work of five Jewish philosophers—Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik—to bring them into dialogue within the discipline. Emphasizing the tenuous place of Jews in European, and particularly German, culture, Erlewine unapologetically contextualizes Jewish philosophy as part of the West. He teases out the antagonistic and overlapping attempts of Jewish thinkers to elucidate the philosophical and cultural meaning of Judaism when others sought to deny and even expel Jewish influences. By reading the canon of Jewish philosophy in this new light, Erlewine offers insight into how Jewish thinkers used religion to assert their individuality and modernity.

Author: Dov Schwartz
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047419995
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This book focuses on the first stages of Soloveitchik’s philosophy, through a systematic and detailed discussion of his essay Halakhic Man. Schwartz successfully exposes hidden layers in Halakhic Man, which may not be immediately evident.

Author: William E. Kaufman
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814324295
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Here is a systematic critique of the theological and philosophical views of the major Jewish thinkers of the 20th century. The pattern of the book is one of challenge and response, with the purpose of activating the mind of the reader to the vital issues of Jewish theology in our own time. New forms of Jewish philosophic inquiry in response to the Holocaust, the American Jewish experience, and the establishment of the state of Israel, makes necessary a clear and comprehensive framework in which contemporary Jewish thought may be studied. Kaufman traces the effects of this new stage of philosophical thinking through the writings of such luminaries as Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, and Mordecai Kaplan, as well as seeking the sources of the thought of such contemporary figures as Emil Fackenheim, Jacob Agus, Arthur Cohen, Eugene Borowitz, Richard Rubenstein, and Abraham Joshua Heschel in the traditional roots of covenant, salvation, and transcendence.

Author: Jacob Golomb
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134867263
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Friedrich Nietzsche occupies a contradictory position in the history of ideas: he came up with the concept of a master race, yet an eminent Jewish scholar like Martin Buber translated his Also sprach Zarathustra into Polish and remained in a lifelong intellectual dialogue with Nietzsche. Sigmund Freud admired his intellectual courage and was not at all reluctant to admit that Nietzsche had anticipated many of his basic ideas. This unique collection of essays explores the reciprocal relationship between Nietzsche and Jewish culture. It is organized in two parts: the first examines Nietzsche's attitudes towards Jews and Judaism; the second Nietzsche's influence on Jewish intellectuals as diverse and as famous as Franz Kafka, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig and Sigmund Freud. Each carefully selected essay explores one aspect of Nietzsche's relation to Judaism and German intellectual history, from Heinrich Heine to Nazism.