Dilemmas in Modern Jewish Thought ― The Dialectics of Revelation and History

MIchael Morgan has served up an intellectual treat. These subtle and carefully reasoned essays explore the dilemmas of the post-modern Jew who would take history seriously without losing the commanding presence Israel heard at Sinai.... It is a pleasure to be nourished by a fresh mind exploring the tension between reason and revelation, history and faith."—Rabbi Samuel Karff

This is without doubt one of the most significant works in modern Jewish thought and a must for a thoughtful student of contemporary Jewish philosophy." —Rabbie Sheldon Zimmerman

This may well mark the next stage in the long history of Jewish self-understanding." —Ethics

... rigorous history of modern Jewish thought... " —Choice

Is Judaism a timeless, universal set of beliefs or, rather, is it historical and contingent in its relation to different times and places? Morgan clarifies the tensions and dilemmas that characterize modern thinking about the nature of Judaism and clears the way for Jews to appreciate their historical situation, yet locate enduring values and principles in a post-Holocaust world.

MICHAEL L. MORGAN is Professor in the Philosophy and Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. He is the author of Platonic Piety: Philosophy and Ritual in Fourth Century Athens and editor of The Jewish Thought of Emil Fackenheim and Classics of Moral and Political Theory.