Judaism After Modernity Papers from a Decade of Fruition

by Borowitz, Eugene B.

• ISBN13: 9780761813293
• ISBN10: 0761813292
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-18
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

Judaism After Modernity presents a collection of writings by America's leading liberal Jewish theologian, who relates his activity as a prominent thinker in modern Judaism. Eugene B. Borowitz provides insights into his spiritual life and development as a prelude to his discussion of personal faith. His papers illustrate and reflect upon the intellectual religious path that led to the development of his postmodern Jewish theology expressed in his systemic statement of 1991, Renewing the Covenant. His writings reveal how he arrived at his unique position and describe how making this statement instigated the further development of his position. Borowitz then discusses the typical Jewish interest in praxis, what one is to do, rather than in doxis, what one says about one's beliefs, incorporating such issues as aging and Zionism. Finally, he presents his relations with his teacher Abraham J. Heschel, and deals with various interfaith issues through his relations with Arnold J. Wolf (a Jewish peer), John Hick, Frans Josef van Beeck, and Masao Abe (three famous non-Jewish teachers).

Author Biography

Eugene B. Borowitz is the Sigmund L. Falk Distinguished Professor of Education and Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introducing the Collection	p. ix
Fragments of a Spiritual Autobiography
My Inner Life	p. 3
My Father's Spirituality and Mine	p. 7
My Way Beyond Modernity	p. 13
My "Not a Festschrift:" Jewish Spiritual Journeys	p. 19
Response to the Gift of "Not a Festschrift"	p. 19
My Pursuit of Prayerfulness	p. 23
A Reflection on My Sense of Certainty	p. 46
The Emergence of a Postmodern Judaism
Continuity and Creativity in the History of the Jewish Religion	p. 53
The First Commandment, A Postmodern Reading	p. 95
What Does the Halakhah Say About...? Joseph Karo's Preface to the Bet Yosef	p. 103
American Jewish Modernity Comes to Self-consciousness	p. 111
B'rit, Mitzvah and Halakha: In Search of a Common Vocabulary	p. 119
The Way to a Postmodern Jewish Theology	p. 125
Postmodernity and the Quintessential Modern Jewish Religious Movement	p. 155
Five Letters To Readers of Renewing the Covenant	p. 169
Textual Reasoning and Jewish Philosophy, The Next Phase of Jewish Postmodernity?	p. 187
What Does Judaism Say About...?
Covenant	p. 195
Zionism	p. 205
Apostasy	p. 219
Apostasy From Judaism Today	p. 219
Are We Too Soft On Apostates?	p. 226
Postmodern Jewish Ethics	p. 233
From Cognitive Dissonance to Creative Groping	p. 233
Toward a Postmodern Jewish Ethics	p. 236
Human Rights	p. 249
Money	p. 259
Finding a Jewish View of a Just Economy	p. 273
Psychoanalysis	p. 285
Religious Pluralism (with Sherry Blumberg)	p. 293
Healing	p. 305
"Please, God, Heal Her, Please"	p. 305
Crisis and Confidence, an Introduction to Psalm 90	p. 313
Aging (with Kerry Olitzky)	p. 317
Life After Death	p. 333
My Teacher, My Friend, My Dialogue Partners
Abraham J. Heschel	p. 343
Thinking About Our Teacher	p. 343
Abraham Heschel and Prophetic Action	p. 348
The Heschel our Community Venerates	p. 355
Arnold Jacob Wolf at Seventy	p. 361
John Hick: Advocate of Adjective-less Religion	p. 369
Frans Jozef van Beeck, Advocate for Roman Catholicism	p. 377
Foreword (to Loving the Torah More than God)	p. 377
The Holocaust and Meaning: Two Letters	p. 382
Masao Abe, Advocate for Zen Buddhism	p. 387
Buddhism and Judaism, Some Further Considerations	p. 387
Masao Abe's Challenge to Modern Jewish Theology	p. 392
About the Author	p. 403
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