Between Religion and Reason (Part I): The Dialectical Position in Contemporary Jewish Thought from Rav Kook to Rav Shagar
The present book is a sequel to Ephraim Chamiel's two previous works The Middle Way and The Dual Truth -studies dedicated to the "middle" trend in modern Jewish thought, that is, those positions that sought to combine tradition and modernity, and offered a variety of approaches for co...
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Zusammenfassung: | The present book is a sequel to Ephraim Chamiel's two previous
works The Middle Way and The Dual
Truth -studies dedicated to the "middle" trend in modern Jewish
thought, that is, those positions that sought to combine tradition
and modernity, and offered a variety of approaches for contending
with the tension between science and revelation and between reason
and religion. The present book explores contemporary Jewish
thinkers who have adopted one of these integrated approaches-namely
the dialectical approach. Some of these thinkers maintain that the
aforementioned tension-the rift within human consciousness between
intellect and emotion, mind and heart-can be mended. Others,
however, think that the dialectic between the two poles of this
tension is inherently irresolvable, a view reminiscent of the
medieval "dual truth" approach. Some thinkers are unclear on this
point, and those who study them debate whether or not they
successfully resolved the tension and offered a means of
reconciliation. The author also offers his views on these
debates.
This book explores the dialectical approaches of Rav Kook, Rav
Soloveitchik, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Samuel Hugo Bergman,
Leo Strauss, Ernst Simon, Emil Fackenheim, Rabbi Mordechai Breuer,
his uncle Isaac Breuer, Tamar Ross, Rabbi Shagar, Moshe Meir, Micah
Goodman and Elchanan Shilo. It also discusses the interpretations
of these thinkers offered by scholars such as Michael Rosenak,
Avinoam Rosenak, Eliezer Schweid, Aviezer Ravitzky, Avi Sagi,
Binyamin Ish-Shalom, Ehud Luz, Dov Schwartz, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow,
Lawrence Kaplan, and Haim Rechnitzer. The author questions some of
these approaches and offers ideas of his own.
This study concludes that many scholars bore witness to the
dialectical tension between reason and revelation; only some
believed that a solution was possible. That being said, and despite
the paradoxical nature of the dual truth approach (which maintains
that two contradictory truths exist and we must live with both of
them in this world until a utopian future or the advent of the
Messiah), increasing numbers of thinkers today are accepting it. In
doing so, they are eschewing delusional and apologetic views such
as the identicality and compartmental approaches that maintain that
tensions and contradictions are unacceptable. |
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DOI: | 10.2307/j.ctv1zjg80z |