The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea - Softcover

Brague, Rémi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226070794 ISBN 13: 9780226070797

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2008

Synopsis

The law of God: these words conjure an image of Moses breaking the tablets at Mount Sinai, but the history of the alliance between law and divinity is so much longer, and its scope so much broader, than a single Judeo-Christian scene can possibly suggest. In his stunningly ambitious new history, Rémi Brague goes back three thousand years to trace this idea of divine law in the West from prehistoric religions to modern times—giving new depth to today’s discussions about the role of God in worldly affairs.

Brague masterfully describes the differing conceptions of divine law in Judaic, Islamic, and Christian traditions and illuminates these ideas with a wide range of philosophical, political, and religious sources. In conclusion, he addresses the recent break in the alliance between law and divinity—when modern societies, far from connecting the two, started to think of law simply as the rule human community gives itself. Exploring what this disconnection means for the contemporary world, Brague—powerfully expanding on the project he began with The Wisdom of the World—re-engages readers in a millennia-long intellectual tradition, ultimately arriving at a better comprehension of our own modernity.

“Brague’s sense of intellectual adventure is what makes his work genuinely exciting to read. The Law of God offers a challenge that anyone concerned with today’s religious struggles ought to take up.”—Adam Kirsch, New York Sun

“Scholars and students of contemporary world events, to the extent that these may be viewed as a clash of rival fundamentalisms, will have much to gain from Brague’s study. Ideally, in that case, the book seems to be both an obvious primer and launching pad for further scholarship.”—Times Higher Education Supplement

About this title

About the Author:

Rémi Brague is professor of philosophy at the Université de Paris I–Sorbonne and at the University of Munich. He is the author of five previous books, including The Wisdom of the World, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and Eccentric Culture.

From Publishers Weekly:

What makes a law "divine"? What characteristics does that divinity confer on the law? How can we describe societies in which human behavior is regulated by laws characterized as divine? Why has modernity abandoned the premodern notion of divine law as the foundation of social practice? Brague, who teaches philosophy at the Sorbonne and the University of Munich, addresses these and other questions in a book that is unfortunately bogged down in pedestrian prose and pedantic style. He explores the idea of divine law and its regulation of society as it developed in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Israel and functioned as a component of Christianity and Islam at least through the Middle Ages. By the time of the Enlightenment, however, the law had been torn away from divinity and become a function of the secular state. Modern society thought of law as simply a human instrument rather than a divine mandate. Though the topic is potentially fruitful, Brague adds little new or startling to the discussion of divine law. Through his chronological exploration of the devolution from divine law to human law, he tells a story about religion and society that is already well known.
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About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0226070794
• ISBN 13: 9780226070797
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 365