Encountering the medieval in modern Jewish thought

Contents......Page 5
Acknowledgements......Page 7
Contributors......Page 9
Introduction Encountering the Medieval in Modern Jewish Thought......Page 13
Part One Modern Fascinations......Page 27
Chapter One “Medieval” and the Politics of Nostalgia: Ideology, Scholarship, and the Creation of the Rational Jew......Page 29
Chapter Two On the Possibility of a Hidden Christian Will: Methodological Pitfalls in the Study of Medieval Jewish Philosophy......Page 53
Chapter Three Lessing in Jerusalem: Modern Religion, Medieval Orientalism, and the Idea of Perfection......Page 83
Part Two Manipulations......Page 111
Chapter Four R. Abraham Isaac Kook and Maimonides: A Contemporary Mystic’s Embrace of Medieval Rationalism......Page 113
Chapter Five On Myth, History, and the Study of Hasidism: Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem......Page 141
Chapter Six What S. Y. Agnon Taught Gershom Scholem About Jewish History......Page 165
Chapter Seven Constructed and Denied: “The Talmud” from the Brisker Rav to the Mishneh Torah......Page 189
Part Three Specters of Strauss......Page 213
Chapter Eight Escaping the Scholastic Paradigm: The Dispute Between Strauss and His Contemporaries About How to Aproach Islamic and Jewish Medieval Philosophy......Page 215
Chapter Nine Justifying Philosophy and Restoring Revelation: Assessing Strauss’s Medieval Return......Page 241
Part Four Venturing Beyond......Page 271
Chapter Ten Echo of the Otherwise: Ethics of Transcendence and the Lure of Theolatry......Page 273
Index......Page 337