Professor of Religion Jacob Neusner, PhD's Books

Vanquished Nation, Broken Spirit

The Virtues of the Heart in Formative Judaism

By: Jacob Neusner

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Vanquished Nation, Broken Spirit

The Virtues of the Heart in Formative Judaism

By: Jacob Neusner

Neusner's book explores how attitudes in Jewish canonical writings relate to the politics of the Jews as a vanquished people.

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Page Count

224

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521328322

ISBN 13

9780521328326

The Early History of Heaven

By: J. Edward Wright Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism University of Arizona

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The Early History of Heaven

By: J. Edward Wright Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism University of Arizona

When we think of "heaven," we generally conjure up positive, blissful images. Heaven is, after all, where God is and where good people go after death to receive their reward. But how and why did Western cultures come to imagine the heavenly realm in such terms? Why is heaven usually thought to be "up there," far beyond the visible sky? And what is the source of the idea that the post mortem abode of the righteous is in this heavenly realm with God? Seeking to discover the roots of these familiar notions, this volume traces the backgrounds, origin, and development of early Jewish and Christian speculation about the heavenly realm -- where it is, what it looks like, and who its inhabitants are. Wright begins his study with an examination of the beliefs of ancient Israel's neighbors Egypt and Mesopotamia, reconstructing the intellectual context in which the earliest biblical images of heaven arose. A detailed analysis of the Hebrew biblical texts themselves then reveals that the Israelites were deeply influenced by images drawn from the surrounding cultures. Wright goes on to examine Persian and Greco-Roman beliefs, thus setting the stage for his consideration of early Jewish and Christian images, which he shows to have been formed in the struggle to integrate traditional biblical imagery with the newer Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos. In a final chapter Wright offers a brief survey of how later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions envisioned the heavenly realms. Accessible to a wide range of readers, this provocative book will interest anyone who is curious about the origins of this extraordinarily pervasive and influential idea.

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198029810

ISBN 13

9780198029816

The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah

By: Elliot Kiba Ginsburg,Associate Professor of Jewish Thought Department of Near Eastern Studies Elliot K Ginsburg

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The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah

By: Elliot Kiba Ginsburg,Associate Professor of Jewish Thought Department of Near Eastern Studies Elliot K Ginsburg

This book is a critical study of the mystical celebration of Sabbath in the classical period of Kabbalah, from the late twelfth to the early sixteenth centuries. The Kabbalists' re-reading of the earlier Jewish tradition has been called a model of "mythopoeic revision," a revision rooted in a world-view that stressed the interrelation of all worlds and levels of being. This is the first work, in any language, to systematically collect and analyze all the major innovations in praxis and theology that classical Kabbalah effected upon the development of the Rabbinic Sabbath, one of the most central areas of Jewish religious practice. The author analyzes the historical development of the Kabbalistic Sabbath, constructs a theoretical framework for the interpretation of its dense myth-ritual structure, and provides a phenomenology of key myths and rituals. It is one of the first Kabbalistic studies to integrate traditional textual-historical scholarship with newer methods employed in the study of religion and symbolic anthropology.

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Page Count

376

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0887067786

ISBN 13

9780887067785

The Exegetical Imagination

On Jewish Thought and Theology

By: Michael Fishbane,Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies and Chair of the Committee on Jewish Studies Michael Fishbane, PhD

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The Exegetical Imagination

On Jewish Thought and Theology

By: Michael Fishbane,Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies and Chair of the Committee on Jewish Studies Michael Fishbane, PhD

Exegesis--interpretation and explanation of sacred texts--is the quintessence of rabbinic thought. Through such means and methods, the written words of Hebrew Scripture have been extended since antiquity, and given new voices for new times. In this lucid and often poetic book, Michael Fishbane delineates the connections between biblical interpretation and Jewish religious thought. How can a canon be open to new meanings, given that it is believed to be immutable? Fishbane discusses the nature and rationale of this interpretative process in a series of studies on ancient Jewish speculative theology. Focusing on questions often pondered in Midrash, he shows how religious ideas are generated or justified by exegesis. He also explores the role exegesis plays in liturgy and ritual. A striking example is the transfer of speculative interpretations into meditation in prayer. Cultivation of the ability to perceive many implicit meanings in a text or religious practice can become a way of living--as Fishbane shows in explaining how such notions as joy or spiritual meditations on death can be idealized and the ideal transmitted through theological interpretation. The Exegetical Imagination is a collection of interrelated essays that together offer new and profound understanding of scriptural interpretation and its central role in Judaism.

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Page Count

248

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674274628

ISBN 13

9780674274624

Holiness in Words

Abraham Joshua Heschel's Poetics of Piety

By: Edward K. Kaplan,Professor of French and Comparative Literature Edward K Kaplan

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Holiness in Words

Abraham Joshua Heschel's Poetics of Piety

By: Edward K. Kaplan,Professor of French and Comparative Literature Edward K Kaplan

A strategy for reading Heschel's major works, as well as a new route to understanding religious writing in general: a lucid study of modern religious and ethical thought using literary criticism.

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Page Count

242

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791428672

ISBN 13

9780791428672

Book's by Professor of Religion Jacob Neusner, PhD

Vanquished Nation, Broken Spirit

Vanquished Nation, Broken Spirit

The Early History of Heaven

The Early History of Heaven

The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah

The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah

The Exegetical Imagination

The Exegetical Imagination

Holiness in Words

Holiness in Words

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