Jewish intellectual history : 16th to 20th century

Description

God, Torah, and Israel. These three concepts (i.e., personal belief, the meaning of Jewish ritual acts, and the purpose of continued Jewish existence) have been the focus of Jewish thought throughout history. But the last four centuries presented Jewish thinkers with difficult challenges. These lectures address the challenges to Jewish intellectual thought in the past 500 years, identifying such challenges and revealing the ways in which a small group of Jewish thinkers attempted to address these challenges.  Read more... Abstract: God, Torah, and Israel. These three concepts (i.e., personal belief, the meaning of Jewish ritual acts, and the purpose of continued Jewish existence) have been the focus of Jewish thought throughout history. But the last four centuries presented Jewish thinkers with difficult challenges. These lectures address the challenges to Jewish intellectual thought in the past 500 years, identifying such challenges and revealing the ways in which a small group of Jewish thinkers attempted to address these challenges Content: disc 1. On studying Jewish history -- Defining modern Jewish history and thought -- Cultural transformation in the Italian ghetto -- 17th-century Marranism & Messianism -- The challenge of Baruch Spinoza -- Moses Mendelssohn and his generation -- disc. 2. The science of Judaism -- Heinrich Graetz : Jewish historian -- Abraham Geiger : the shaping of Reform Judaism -- The Neo-Orthodoxy of Samson Raphael Hirsch -- Zecharias Frankel and Conservative Judaism -- Samuel David Luzzatto : Judaism & Atticism. disc 3. Zionism's answer to the Jewish problem -- Three Zionist visions -- The Jewish adventure with Socialism -- Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason -- Leo Baeck's mystery and commandment -- Martin Buber's religious existentialism -- disc 4. Jewish law : Martin Buber vs. Franz Rosenzweig -- Mordecai Kaplan and American Judaism -- Abraham Heschel : mystic & social activist -- Theological responses to the Nazi Holocaust -- Feminist Jewish theology -- Current trends in Jewish thought.