Maimonides on the Origin of the World

Maimonides on the Origin of the World PDF Author: Kenneth Seeskin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052184553X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Looks closely at the debates surrounding Maimonides' discussion of creation.

Maimonides on the Origin of the World

Maimonides on the Origin of the World PDF Author: Kenneth Seeskin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052184553X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Looks closely at the debates surrounding Maimonides' discussion of creation.

Maimonides on the Origin of the World

Maimonides on the Origin of the World PDF Author: Kenneth Seeskin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521845533
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Although Maimonides' discussion of creation is one of his greatest contributions - he himself claims that belief in creation is second in importance only to belief in God - there is still considerable debate on what that contribution was. Kenneth Seeskin takes a close look at the problems Maimonides faced and the sources from which he drew. He argues that Maimonides meant exactly what he said: the world was created by a free act of God so that the existence of everything other than God is contingent. In religious terms, existence is a gift. In order to reach this conclusion, Seeskin examines Maimonides' view of God, miracles, the limits of human knowledge, and the claims of astronomy to be a science. Clearly written and closely argued, Maimonides on the Origin of the World takes up questions of perennial interest.

Maimonides

Maimonides PDF Author: Israel Drazin
Publisher: Gefen Publishing House Ltd
ISBN: 9789652294241
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
An examination of the remarkable penetrating mind of Moses Maimonides and to his rational eye-opening thoughts on many subjects. It includes ideas that are not incorporated in the usual books about this great philosopher because they are so different than the traditional thinking of the vast majority of people. It contrasts the notions of other Jewish thinkers, somewhat rational and others not rational at all. The reader will be surprised, if not shocked, to learn that a host of beliefs that are prevalent among the Jewish masses have no rational basis. This does not suggest that Judaism itself is irrational and absurd. Just the opposite. But many Jews have opted to believe the unreasonable and illogical conventional ideas what Maimonides would label non-Jewish sabian notions because they have not been acquainted with Maimonides correct rational alternatives and taken the time to reflect upon it.

Searching for a Distant God

Searching for a Distant God PDF Author: Kenneth Seeskin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195344081
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Monotheism is usually considered Judaism's greatest contribution to world culture, but it is far from clear what monotheism is. This work examines the notion that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God as a claim about the nature of God. Seeskin argues that the idea of a God who is separate from his creation and unique is not just an abstraction but a suitable basis for worship. He examines this conclusion in the contexts of prayer, creation, sabbath observance, repentance, religious freedom, and love of God. Maimonides plays a central role in the argument both because of his importance to Jewish self-understanding and because he deals with the question of how philosophic ideas are embodied in religious ritual.

Evil and Providence in Maimonides’S Guide of the Perplexed

Evil and Providence in Maimonides’S Guide of the Perplexed PDF Author: Modestus Anyaegbu
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503512444
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Maimonidess rationalist rejection and interpretation of anthropomorphism play a major part in his reading of the problem of evil and providence in the guide of the perplexed. The debate has been on finding an explanation as to why the righteous suffer and the vicious prosper in a world under the providence of a divine Creator. The anthropomorphic bent given to the legendary case of the biblical Job has given us the concept of God as a personal agent. But confronted with the reality of his innocent suffering, this image of God leaves much to be desired. We shall argue that Maimonidess theory of providence as consequent upon the intellect and evil as consequent upon the absence of intellectual perfection are based on the concept of God as existence. It is the absence of intellectual perfection that marks man qua animal and leaves him open to chance occurrences and evil. A Promotional Write-Up: The present work places before us the strange position and it must be saida little bit shocking to us, of the great Jewish thinker on the question of providence. Only the intelligent, that is to say, the human beings who have effectively actualized their intellects and have come to an accomplished knowledge, are considered and personally protected by the Eternal. In other words, the traditional piety that is usually asked of the believers by religious authorities is not sufficient. This piety is still marked by illusion and does not procure for man the true knowledge of God which is worthy of him. The individual ought to overcome pietistic representations in order to open himself to divine truth which is accessible only through knowledge. This is what the Book of Job illustrates . . . At the time when the actuality does not cease to present before us the question of the status of religion and the religious within modernity, the attempt by Maimonides to articulate these two styles carries an indisputable force of conviction as shown with abundant evidence in the work presented by Modestus Anyaegbu. Jean-Michel Counet, president of the Institut Suprieur de Philosophie, Universit Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

The Guide for the Perplexed

The Guide for the Perplexed PDF Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description


Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation

Hasdai Crescas on Codification, Cosmology and Creation PDF Author: Ari Ackerman
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004518657
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This work focuses on the conception of God of the medieval Jewish philosopher and legal scholar, Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11). It demonstrates that Crescas’ God is infinitely creative and good and explores the parallel that Crescas implicitly draws between God as creator and legislator.

Scepticism and Anti-Scepticism in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Thought

Scepticism and Anti-Scepticism in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Thought PDF Author: Racheli Haliva
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110552914
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
The series Studies and Texts in Scepticism contains monographs, translations, and collected essays exploring scepticism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a set of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field - especially in religions, perhaps most notably in Judaism. In such cultural contexts scepticism manifests as a critical attitude towards different dimensions and systems of secular or revealed knowledge and towards religious and political authorities. It is not merely an intellectual or theoretical worldview, but a critical form of life that expresses itself in such diverse phenomena as religion, literature, and society. Further book series of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies are Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion and the Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advances Studies.

Freedom and Law

Freedom and Law PDF Author: Randi Rashkover
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823234525
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
By contrast, Freedom and Law argues that only in an account of revelatory law can divine freedom and human freedom be thought of without contradiction.The first part analyzes the logic of exceptionalism. In the second part, the author argues that one cannot invoke a doctrine of election without rigorous scrutiny of texts that portray an electing God and an elected people. Once we scrutinize these texts, the character of freedom and law within the divine-human relationship shows itself to be different from that found in exceptionalist logics.The third and final part examines the impact of the logic of the law on Jewish-Christian apologetics. Rather than require that one defend one's position to a nonbeliever, this logic situates all epistemological justification within the order or freedom of God.

The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology

The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology PDF Author: Steven Kepnes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108244157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology offers an overview of Jewish theology, an aspect of Judaism that is equal in importance to law and ethics. Covering the period from antiquity to the present, the volume focuses on what Jews believe about God and also about the relation of God to humans and the world. Parts I and II cover exciting new research in Jewish biblical and rabbinic theology, medieval philosophy, Kabbalah (mysticism), and liturgy. Parts III and IV turn to modern theology with an exploration of works by leading figures, such as Rabbi Abraham I. Kook, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as the relation of theology to issues such as feminism and the Holocaust, and the relation of Judaism to other world religions. In Part V, the book explores how the insights of analytic philosophy have been integrated with Jewish theology.