Life and works -- The story of creation -- God and His attributes -- Divine omniscience -- Divine providence -- Divine omnipotence -- Prophecy -- Humanity and its destiny -- The Torah.

This volume explores the early Jewish understanding of divine knowledge as divine presence, which is embodied in major biblical exemplars, such as Adam, Enoch, Jacob, and Moses. The study treats the concept of divine knowledge as the embodied divine presence in its full historical and interpretive complexity by tracing the theme through a broad variety of ancient Near Eastern and Jewish sources, including Mesopotamian traditions of cultic statues, creational narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and later Jewish mystical testimonies. Orlov demonstrates (...) that some biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts postulate that the theophany expresses the unique, corporeal nature of the deity that cannot be fully grasped or conveyed in some other non-corporeal symbolism, medium, or language. The divine presence requires another presence in order to be transmitted. To be communicated properly and in its full measure, the divine iconic knowledge must be "written" on a new living "body" which can hold the ineffable presence of God through a newly acquired ontology. Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism will provide an invaluable research to students and scholars in a wide range of areas within Jewish, Near Eastern, and Biblical Studies, as well as those studying religious elements of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and gender studies. Through the study of Jewish mediatorial figures, this book also elucidates the roots of early Christological developments, making it attractive to Christian audiences. (shrink)

Over the past few decades, Seymour Feldman has contributed important studies on the philosophy of Levi ben Gershom, better known as Gersonides (1288-1344), as well as a highly acclaimed annotated translation of Gersonides' philosophical opus, The Wars of the Lord. Feldman now offers a succinct conspectus of Gersonides' positions on the pivotal issues of medieval Jewish philosophy and the arguments he offers in their favor: creation; God and His attributes; divine omniscience, providence, and omnipotence; prophecy; humanity; and the Torah. Feldman's (...) guiding thesis is encapsulated in the book's subtitle: Judaism within the Limits of Reason. Gersonides is fully committed to the authority of Scripture and .. (shrink)

This essay considers what the logical implications for God's free will would be if God possessed the characteristics that he is often said to have, such as Immutability. If God does not have free will it undermines the Free Will Defense for the Problem of Evil and the case for free will generally. Those who believe in human free will often believe that it exists because humans possess an immaterial soul; however, if God does not have free will then the (...) religious case for free will is weakened. (shrink)

I'm not going to discuss whether or not there is a God, but simply whether if there is a God, that makes any difference to morality. I shall argue first that the existence and actions of God would make no difference to the fact that there are moral truths—and on this you may already agree with me. But I shall go on to argue that the existence and actions of God would make a great difference to the content of morality, (...) to the seriousness of morality, and our knowledge of morality—and on all that I may need to convince you. I assume a standard Western account of the nature of God, as essentially eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good, creator and sustainer of the universe and all that it contains, the kind of God affirmed by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well as some other religions. (shrink)

Si Dieu sait absolument toute chose à l'avance, en quoi consiste le libre arbitre des hommes? Quel est le sens d'une telle liberté si, en définitive, le choix de l'homme sera toujours et nécessairement celui prévu par Dieu? Et si l'on suppose que les décisions humaines sont imprévisibles, comment Dieu planifie-t-Il Sa providence? Telles sont les questions qui ont immanquablement hanté les esprits dès lors que fut posé l'un des paradoxes les plus déconcertants de la théologie monothéiste : la croyance (...) simultanée en l'omniscience divine et le libre arbitre humain. En filigrane, c'est la mystérieuse frontière qui départage le champ d'action divin et humain dans le devenir du monde qui est en question. Jamais encore entreprise, la présente enquête passe en revue les principales tentatives des penseurs juifs de lever la contradiction, depuis les auteurs bibliques jusqu'aux temps contemporains. Elle illustre le formidable foisonnement d'idées, la confrontation délicate entre raison et religion et le courage intellectuel exceptionnel qui a amené certains penseurs à bouleverser bien des idées préconçues. Elle révèle aussi combien les penseurs juifs étaient pénétrés des conceptions philosophiques de leur temps jusqu'à prendre en considération les réflexions des théologiens musulmans et chrétiens pour mieux définir leur conception du judaïsme. Enfin, à partir de cette étude historique et comparative, l'auteur montre quelles perspectives pertinentes et novatrices s'offrent à la théologie moderne pour définir le rapport de Dieu au monde. Sans rien céder sur la rigueur de l'analyse, l'ouvrage ne s'adresse pas qu'aux érudits. Les illustrations, le lexique des termes spécialisés, ainsi que les divers appendices explicatifs, fournissent au lecteur profane tous les outils indispensables à la lisibilité du texte. De la sorte, c'est à une véritable initiation à la philosophie juive, dont la richesse demeure encore insoupçonnée, qu'est convié le lecteur. (shrink)

I’m not going to discuss whether or not there is a God, but simply whether if there is a God, that makes any difference to morality. I shall argue first that the existence and actions of God would make no difference to the fact that there are moral truths—and on this you may already agree with me. But I shall go on to argue that the existence and actions of God would make a great difference1 to the content of morality, (...) to the seriousness of morality, and our knowledge of morality—and on all that I may need to convince you. I assume a standard Western account of the nature of God, as essentially eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good, creator and sustainer of the universe and all that it contains, the kind of God affirmed by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well as some other religions. (shrink)

In this paper, we show that God is portrayed in the Hebrew Bible and in the Rabbinic literature—some of the very Hebrew texts that have influenced the three major world religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—as One who can be argued with and even changes his mind. Contrary to fundamentalist positions, in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts God is omniscient but enjoys good, playful argumentation, broadening the possibilities for reasoning and reasonability. Arguing with God has also had (...) a profound influence upon Jewish humor, demonstrating that humans can joke with God. More specifically, we find in Jewish literature that humor’s capacity to bisociate between different domains of human experience can share a symbiotic relationship with argumentation’s emphasis on producing multiple, contested perspectives. Overall, once mortals realize that figures such as God can accept many perspectives through humor, teasing, arguing, criticism, and in at least one case, even lawsuits, a critical point emerges: citizens should learn to live, laugh, and reason with others with whom they disagree. (shrink)

Book of Jewish philosophy including such topics as reconciling science and religion, Divine providence, God's infinitude and omniscience, reincarnation, how faith has the power to alter nature, God's immutability, how to reconcile spirituality with the physical universe, and resurrection.

The Holocaust is one of the most intractable and challenging tragedies of moral evil to understand, assuming the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient and all-loving God, and it has important implications for all theists. This paper critically examines the problem of evil in the philosophical theologies of two prominent Jewish philosophers: Emil Fackenheim and Richard Rubenstein. The article defends their view that the six million deaths are existentially meaningless because no justifiable reason exists why God permitted this. Thus, a Jewish (...) theodicy is not possible for them. Fackenheim attempts to salvage traditional Judaism, and urges Jews not to lose their faith, lest Hitler be given a posthumous victory. Rubenstein rejects Fackenheim’s position and encourages Jews to accept the death of God and his mystical radical theology, and still continue traditional religious practices. I question both these responses, and hold that it is more plausible that God is not perfectly loving. (shrink)