Historicism and Revelation in Modern Jewish Thought

Dilemmas in Modern Jewish Thought: The Dialectics of Revelation and History, by Michael M. Morgan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. 181 pp. Michael Morgan, Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at Indiana University, here presents a series of essays, written within the last decade and a half, which explore the dialectical relationship of revelation and history. The complexity and tensions of that relationship are aptly captured in the first essay of the book, in which Morgan writes (p. 12) that "genuine Jewish religiosity can neither dispose of nor be enslaved to history. Judaism is about history and transcendence and their intermingling." The principal figures examined from this dual political and metaphysical perspective are Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Leo Strauss, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emil Fackenheim. The book is dedicated to Fackenheim and is thoroughly infused with his teachings. While not unaware of proble his mentor's approach, Morgan is a loyal and loving disciple, as re other works of his will know.

In his influential Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi analyzed brilliantly the transition in Jewish conceptions of Jewish history from premodern to modern times. The present paper discusses a number of alternative perspectives on this transition. Yerushalmi argued convincingly the importance of the traditional conception of Jewish history, which he labeled "Jewish memory," for Jewish survival. This paper challenges the terminology, agrees with the role played by the traditional Jewish thinking in Jewish survival, and emphasizes the premodern circumstances that made the traditional thinking so vital and effective. With respect to modern conceptions of Jewish history, which Yerushalmi associates with Jewish history writing, this paper argues that an examination of the circumstances of modernity reveals the creativity of this altered view of the Jewish past and the ways in which it in turn has fostered Jewish survival in the face of radically new challenges.

in in History and Religion. Narrating a Religious Past Ed. by Otto, Bernd-Christian / Rau, Susanne / Rüpke, Jörg In coop. with Quero-Sánchez, Andrés

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, 1995