Jewish Faith in a Changing World: A Modern Introduction to the World and Ideas of Classical Jewish Philosophy (Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History)

Ever since the first encounter between Judaism and the western world in the second century BCE, Jewish thinkers like Maimonides, Gersonides, R. Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, and Rabbi A. I. Kook have grappled with issues of Jewish faith and modernity. The works they published, which comprise Jewish classical philosophy, were products of the highest intellectual caliber, and no question of faith, no matter how embarrassing or heretical, was overlooked. In this book Raphael Shuchat presents the reader with some of the main and timeless issues of Jewish philosophy over the ages and updates them to twenty-first century thinking, making each issue relevant for the modern reader. This book offers a fresh intellectual outlook on the Jewish faith, and contains a timely message for all religionists and thinkers in the twenty-first century. It will be of great use to both students and laymen.

Rafael Shuchat (Ph.D. Bar-Ilan University, Rabbinic ordination Jerusalem Rabbinate) is a lecturer in Jewish philosophy and mysticism at Bar-Ilan University and Hebrew University. His publications include The Gaon of Vilna and His Academy and A World Hidden in the Dimension of Time: The Theory of Redemption in the Writings of the Vilna Gaon. He is also the founder and director of Project Chaverim, the Jewish Identity Program for new immigrant students, at Ner L’Elisheva in Israel.