Moses Maimonides and Reb Chaim Volozhiner are among the most famous and influential medieval and early modern writers offering theoretical resolutions about how to comprehend the concept of God.
Aryeh Botwinick explores some of the broad based philosophical and theological issues about human understanding of God, the role of Messianism in worldly affairs and the mystical notion of Eyn Sof. He forefronts the privacy of language and highlights the continuity between monotheistic discourse, scientific discourse, moral discourse, and common sense. In particular he analyses the views of the famed medieval Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), and the modern Talmudic master, Chaim Volozhiner (1749–1841). The author’s contention is that the scope of their contributions is much wider than is generally understood.
This book will appeal to readers with an interest in Talmudic and Maimonidean studies; students of intellectual history of various monotheistic religions; and scholars and journalists specializing in Mideast conflict as well as in domestic and international internecine warfare.
This book explores some of the broad based philosophical and theological issues about human understanding of God, the role of Messianism in worldly affairs and the mystical notion of eyn Sof.
Introduction
1. The Simultaneous Genesis of Monotheism and Skepticism in
Jewish Religion
2. Divine Unknowability versus Divine Non-Existence
3.
Maimonides Theorizing of the Monotheistic God
4. Maimonides
Ideal-Typological Portrait of the Judge
5. Maimonides on Prophecy
6.
Avicenna: Negative Theology, Skepticism, and Mysticism
7. Rabbinic Genealogy:
Rabbi Akiva as a Precursor of Maimonides Negative Theology
8. The Wests
Stationary Metaphysical Moment: St Anselm's Ontological Argument
9. Reb Chaim
Volozhiner as Rooted in Maimonides Negative Theology
10. Weak Messianism as
the Good: A Classical Liberal Translation of Negative Theology
11.
Horizontality vs. Verticality: New Readings in the Understanding of Religion
and the Organizing of Politics
12. The Case for a Negative Theological
Hermeneutic of the Biblical Text
13. Maimonides' Philosophy of Prayer: The
Impact of Negative Theology in Reconceiving the Nature and Role of Prayer
Aryeh Botwinick is Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Temple University. His most prominent research interests are negative theology and its relationship to skepticism, and Maimonidean Studies. His most important publications are Skepticism, Belief, and the Modern: Maimonides to Nietzsche (1997), and Michael Oakeshotts Skepticism (2011).
