Reinventing Maimonides in Contemporary Jewish Thought

Maimonides' influence on Jewish thought and law has been profound, with Orthodox rabbis of different orientations reading and providing footnotes to his works in the long twentieth century. This volume explores how well they understood Maimonides and where their arguments fit in the mainstream debates about him and his works. The essays demonstrate that his legacy remains vibrantly alive today.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 01 January 2019
Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Maimonides' influence on Jewish thought and law since the twelfth century is profound, with his ideas shaping the entire European philosophical tradition. A. N. Whitehead's famous dictum that the entire European philosophical tradition 'consists of a series of footnotes to Plato' could equally characterize Maimonides' place in the Jewish tradition. This volume explores how Orthodox rabbis of different orientations have read and provided footnotes to Maimonides in the long twentieth century, examining their understanding of Maimonides and their arguments in mainstream debates about him and his works. The seven core chapters examine different approaches, including rabbis who have tried to liberate themselves from the influence of Maimonides' ideas, those who have sought to build on those ideas or expand them in ways which Maimonides himself did not pursue, and those who have advanced patently non-Maimonidean positions while attributing them to Maimonides. The essays published here demonstrate that Maimonides' legacy remains vibrantly alive today.

Weight: 526g
Dimension: 164 x 243 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781906764951