Maimonides' Confrontation With Mysticism - Couverture souple

Kellner, Menachem

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1906764158 ISBN 13 : 9781906764159

Editeur : The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

'One of the most important books on Maimonides to be published in the last thirty years and quite possibly one of the most important in the field of Jewish philosophy. The writing is clear and crisp, and the scholarship is impeccable. The book explains not just how radical Mamonides's dissatisfactions with the Judaism of his day was, but how radical his opinions are for most Jews today.' --Kenneth Seeskind, AJS Review

'Impressive . . . lucid . . . that rare scholarly study that manages not to compromise on academic rigour while daring to state strongly-held convictions that are so relevant in times troubled by the many irrational surges of political, military, and religious fundamentalism.' --Allan Nadler, Forward

'Kellner has refocused Maimonidean studies in a new way. In addition, he has done so in a very learned manner: his footnotes cover a vast area of Jewish scholarship; his summaries of scholarship are very concise; and his bibliography is very full . . . a very important book. It formulates clearly and comprehensively the hyperrationalist reading of Maimonides which is widely held by scholars of Jewish philosophy. It also offers a new proposal on the subject of the opponents against whom Maimonides wrote. Kellner s erudition has made this so, and his willingness to engage the present and the future has projected the issue beyond medieval philosophy.' --David R. Blumenthal, Reviews in Religion & Theology

'Impressive . . . lucid . . . that rare scholarly study that manages not to compromise on academic rigour while daring to state strongly-held convictions that are so relevant in times troubled by the many irrational surges of political, military, and religious fundamentalism.' --Allan Nadler, Forward

'Kellner has refocused Maimonidean studies in a new way. In addition, he has done so in a very learned manner: his footnotes cover a vast area of Jewish scholarship; his summaries of scholarship are very concise; and his bibliography is very full . . . a very important book. It formulates clearly and comprehensively the hyperrationalist reading of Maimonides which is widely held by scholars of Jewish philosophy. It also offers a new proposal on the subject of the opponents against whom Maimonides wrote. Kellner s erudition has made this so, and his willingness to engage the present and the future has projected the issue beyond medieval philosophy.' --David R. Blumenthal, Reviews in Religion & Theology

'Impressive . . . lucid . . . that rare scholarly study that manages not to compromise on academic rigour while daring to state strongly-held convictions that are so relevant in times troubled by the many irrational surges of political, military, and religious fundamentalism.' --Allan Nadler, Forward

'Kellner has refocused Maimonidean studies in a new way. In addition, he has done so in a very learned manner: his footnotes cover a vast area of Jewish scholarship; his summaries of scholarship are very concise; and his bibliography is very full . . . a very important book. It formulates clearly and comprehensively the hyperrationalist reading of Maimonides which is widely held by scholars of Jewish philosophy. It also offers a new proposal on the subject of the opponents against whom Maimonides wrote. Kellner s erudition has made this so, and his willingness to engage the present and the future has projected the issue beyond medieval philosophy.' --David R. Blumenthal, Reviews in Religion & Theology

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Many books on Maimonides have been written and still more will appear. Few present Maimonides, as Menachem Kellner does against the actual religious background that informed his many innovative and influential choices. He not only analyses the thought of the great religious thinker but contextualizes it in terms of the proto-kabbalistic Judaism that preceded him. Kellner shows how the Judaism that Maimonides knew had come to conceptualize the world as an enchanted universe, governed by occult affinities. He shows why Maimonides rejected this and how he went about doing it. Kellner argues that Maimonides attmepted reformation failed, the clearest proof of that being the success of the kabbalistic counter-reformation which his writings provoked. Kellner shows how Maimonides rethought Judaism in different ways. It is in highlighting this and identifying Maimonides as a religious reformer that this book makes its key contribution. Maimonides created a new Judaism, disenchanted , depersonalized, and challenging; a religion that is at the same time elitist and universalist. Kellner s analysis also shows the deep configuration of Judaism in a new light. If, as Moshe Idel says in his Foreword, Maimonides was able to reform so many aspects of rabbinic Judaism single-handedly, to enrich it by importing such dramatically different concepts, it shows that the profound structures of this religion are flexible enough to allow the emergence and success of astonishing reforms. The fact that, great as Maimonides was, he did not overcome the traditional forms of proto-kabbalism shows that the dynamic of religion is much more complex than subscribing to authorities, however widely accepted.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1906764158
• ISBN 13: 9781906764159
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 364