Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology

by Fishbane, Michael A.

• ISBN13: 9780226251714
• ISBN10: 0226251713
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Contemporary theology, and Jewish theology in particular, Michael Fishbane asserts, now lies fallow, beset by strong critiques from within and without. For Jewish reality, a coherent and wide-ranging response in thoroughly modern terms is needed.SacredAttunementis Fishbane's attempt to renew Jewish theology for our time, in the larger context of modern and postmodern challenges to theology and theological thought in the broadest sense. The first part of the book regrounds theology in this setting and opens up new pathways through nature, art, and the theological dimension as a whole. In the second section, Fishbane introduces his hermeneutical theologyone grounded in the interpretation of scripture as a distinctly Jewish practice. The third section focuses on modes of self-cultivation for awakening and sustaining a covenant theology. The final section takes up questions of scripture, authority, belief, despair, and obligation as theological topics in their own right. The first full-scale Jewish theology in America since Abraham J. Heschel'sGod in Search of Manand the first comprehensive Jewish philosophical theology since Franz Rosenzweig'sStar of Redemption,Sacred Attunementis a work of uncommon personal integrity and originality from one of the most distinguished scholars of Judaica in our time.

Author Biography

Michael Fishbane is the Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies in the Divinity School and a member of the Committee on Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Toward Theology	p. 1
Rethinking Theology: Some Preliminary Considerations	p. 1
Three Domains of Human Being	p. 15
From General to Jewish Theology	p. 39
A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology	p. 46
Sinai and Torah	p. 46
Torah and Hermeneutical Theology	p. 62
PaRDeS	p. 102
Religious Practice and Forms of Attention	p. 108
Preliminary Thoughts about Living Theologically	p. 108
The Practice of Halakha	p. 114
The Life of Prayer	p. 129
The Process of Study	p. 146
Radical Kindness	p. 151
Forms of Thought and Living Theology	p. 156
Scripture as the Ground of Life and Thought	p. 156
Emunah and Theological Integrity	p. 164
Futility and the Sense of Hevel	p. 172
Be-khol Atar ve-Atar: Central Places	p. 176
Toward a Theology of Hiyyuv	p. 191
"In the cranny of the rock, in the hiddenness"	p. 200
Sof ve-Ein Sof: Finitude and Infinity	p. 201
Epilogue	p. 206
Acknowledgments	p. 211
Notes	p. 213
Index	p. 233
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