A History of Judaism - Hardcover

Goodman, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846141559 ISBN 13: 9781846141553

Publisher: Penguin Press, 2018

Synopsis

A panoramic history of Judaism from its origins to the present Judaism is by some distance the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions. Despite the extraordinarily diverse forms it has taken, the Jewish people have believed themselves bound to God by the same covenant for more than three thousand years. This book explains how Judaism came to be and how it has developed from one age to the next, as well as the ways in which its varieties have related to each other. A History of Judaism ranges from Judaism's inception amidst polytheistic societies in the second and fi rst millennia, through the Jerusalem Temple cult in the centuries preceding its destruction, to the rabbis, mystics and messiahs of medieval and early modern times and, finally, the many expressions of the modern and contemporary Jewish worlds. Throughout, Martin Goodman shows how Judaism has been made and remade over the millennia by individuals as well as communities, and shaped by the cultures and philosophies in which Jews have been immersed. It becomes a truly global story, spanning not only the Middle East, Europe and North Africa, but also China, India and America, andone that untangles the threads of doctrinal and philosophical debate running through Judaism's history. Goodman demonstrates that its numerous strains have often adopted incompatible practices and ideas - about the authority of ancestral traditions, the meaning of scripture, the nature of God, the afterlife and the End of Days - but that disagreement has almost always been tolerated without schism. There have been many histories of the Jewish people but remarkably few attempts to describe the history and evolution of Judaism itself. This panoramic book, the fi rst of its kind in almost seventy years, does glorious justice to the inexhaustible variety of one the world's great religions.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"In this remarkable book, Martin Goodman compresses the entire history of Judaism--from Josephus to Jewish Renewal--into a thoroughly readable synthesis, paying special attention to Jewish diversity and drawing on up-to-date scholarship. Henceforward, all students of Judaism should begin here."--Jonathan D. Sarna, author of When General Grant Expelled the Jews

"Martin Goodman's A History of Judaism is a boundlessly edifying work, combining a glittering career's worth of erudition with the drive for clarity and the expressive gesture of a master educator. Everyone will find a great deal to learn from--and think about--here."--Jeremy Dauber, author of Jewish Comedy: A Serious History

"Covering an astonishingly wide geographic spread, Martin Goodman's authoritative and nuanced history places Jewish communities in their many contexts and analyzes their religious and intellectual developments from antiquity to modern times. This thoughtful book allows the reader to follow the thread of Judaism in its multiple manifestations through the ages."--Sarah Stroumsa, professor of Jewish thought and Arabic studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Martin Goodman writes with the intimacy of an insider and the breadth of an incisive scholar. At once lucid and authoritative, expansive and nuanced, his book is the finest introduction to Judaism written in recent years."--Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History

"With admirable erudition, Martin Goodman offers an entirely fresh perspective on how Judaism combines both past and present. This book will surely become the standard work on this vast subject."--David Biale, University of California, Davis

"A magisterial journey along the highways and many of the byways of Jewish thought. Firmly anchored in his area of expertise, the renowned historian of late antiquity Martin Goodman ventures beyond, from ancient times to modern, in a compelling display of scholarly virtuosity. A History of Judaism is a major achievement."--David Myers, professor of Jewish history, UCLA, and president of the Center for Jewish History

"Multiple millennia. Numberless generations of seers, scribes, and scholars. Martin Goodman’s lambent prose captures it all, the whole glorious, noisy, improbable history of so many different Jews and so many different inflections of Jewishness. Savor the journey."--Paula Fredriksen, author of Augustine and the Jews

"This insightful book is the work of a major historian of Judaism. Goodman's bold and original thinking, excellent historical judgment, and elegant style are all on display here. A History of Judaism is an introduction for the twenty-first century, incorporating new knowledge for our own times."--Philip Alexander, author of The Mystical Texts

About the Author:

Martin Goodman is Professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford and President of the Oxford Centre for Jewish and Hebrew Studies. He is a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and the British Academy. His Rome and Jerusalem, published in 2008, was acknowledged as a landmark in the study of the Jewish people in the Roman Empire, and has been translated into six languages. In 2002 he edited the Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies, which was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1846141559
• ISBN 13: 9781846141553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 800