Why the Bible Began by Jacob L. Wright
An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins Why did no other ancient society produce something like the Bible? That a tiny, out of the way community could have created a literary corpus so...
Tagged: Cambridge University Press
Law and Jewish Difference: Ambivalent Encounters by Mareike Riedel
Cambridge Studies in Law and Society After centuries of persecution and discrimination, Jews are today often seen as a successful and well-integrated religious minority group in a ‘Judeo-Christian West’. This book qualifies this narrative...
Monotheism and Narrative Development of the Divine Character in the Hebrew Bible by Mark McEntire
Elements in Religion and Monotheism The preeminent example of monotheism, the God of the Hebrew Bible, is the end product of a long process. The world from which this literature emerged was polytheistic. The...
Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity by Simcha Gross
From the image offered by the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish elites were deeply embedded within the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). The Talmud is replete with stories and discussions that feature Sasanian kings, Zoroastrian magi, fire...
The Jewish Imperial Imagination: Leo Baeck and German-Jewish Thought by Yaniv Feller
Ideas in Context Leo Baeck (1873–1956) was a rabbi, public intellectual, and the official leader of German Jewry during the Holocaust. The Jewish Imperial Imagination shows the myriad ways in which the German imperial...
Absurdity and Meaning in Contemporary Philosophy and Jewish Thought by Alan L. Mittleman
There is a lively discussion in contemporary philosophy that explores the meaning of life or, more modestly, meaning in life. Philosophers, for the most part, assume that religion has little to contribute to this...
Multilingualism and Translation in Ancient Judaism by Steven D. Fraade
Before and After Babel In this book, Steven Fraade explores the practice and conception of multilingualism and translation in ancient Judaism. Interrogating the deep and dialectical relationship between them, he situates representative scriptural and...
Heidegger and His Jewish Reception by Daniel M. Herskowitz
In this book, Daniel Herskowitz examines the rich, intense, and persistent Jewish engagement with one of the most important and controversial modern philosophers, Martin Heidegger. Contextualizing this encounter within wider intellectual, cultural, and political...
Israel’s Declaration of Independence by Neil Rogachevsky, Dov Zigler
The History and Political Theory of the Nation’s Founding Moment Israel’s Declaration of Independence brings to life the debates and decisions at the founding of the state of Israel. Through a presentation of the...
Modern Jewish Philosophy and the Politics of Divine Violence by Daniel H. Weiss
Is commitment to God compatible with modern citizenship? In this book, Daniel H. Weiss provides new readings of four modern Jewish philosophers – Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Walter Benjamin – in...
