The Philosophy of the Bible

by Schweid, Eliezer

• ISBN13: 9781934843000
• ISBN10: 1934843008
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-15
• Publisher: Academic Studies Pr

Summary

The fundamental book of Eliezer Schweid is a modern interpretation of the Bible as narrative and law that can reopen the dialogue of contemporary Jews with the Bible, from which a dynamic Jewish culture can continue to draw its inspiration. The approach draws at the same time from the philosophical modernism of Hermann Cohen, the dialogical philosophy of Buber, the religious phenomenology of Heschel, and the insights of contemporary Biblical scholars, including literary analysts of the Bible. Schweid helps us to appreciate the broader message of the narrative of creation and settlement of the land in its ecumenical and planetary dimensions. The world is God¿s creation whose resources are to be deployed as necessary for the sustenance and needs-fulfillment of all peoples and all creatures equally¿a message very much relevant to the ecological crisis facing us all at the present time.

Author Biography

Eliezer Schweid is one of Israel's most respected intellectuals and scholars. Born in Jerusalem in 1929, he grew up and was educated in the heart of the Zionist project to build the Jewish homeland. At 19, he was a soldier in the Israeli War of Independence. His spiritual crises, growing out of that experience, led him to explore the legacy of Jewish thought in all its manifestationsùreligious and secular, ancient, medieval and modern. As Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University, educator and intellectual, and author of 40 books on Jewish thought of all periods, he has taught and mentored generations of Israelis to mine the spiritual, intellectual and moral legacy of Jewish thought for the formation of their own identities and to provide the experiential background and moral compass to guide them in the present. He is the recipient of the Israel Prize and two honorary doctorates. He lives in Jerusalem.