Tradition vs. traditionalism : contemporary perspectives in Jewish thought / / Avi Sagi ; translated from Hebrew by Batya Stein.

• Superior document: VIBS ; v. 197
• Author: Sagi, Abraham.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Value inquiry book series ; v. 197.; Value inquiry book series. Philosophy and religion.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (235 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This book is a first attempt to examine the thought of key contemporary Jewish thinkers on the meaning of tradition in the context of two models. The classic model assumes that tradition reflects lack of dynamism and reflectiveness, and the present’s unqualified submission to the past. This view, however, is an image that the modernist ethos has ascribed to the tradition so as to remove it from modern existence. In the alternative model, a living tradition emerges as open and dynamic, developing through an ongoing dialogue between present and past. The Jewish philosophers discussed in this work—Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, David Hartman, and Eliezer Goldman—ascribe compelling canonic status to the tradition, and the analysis of their thought discloses the tension between these two models. The book carefully traces the course they have plotted along the various interpretations of tradition through their approach to Scripture and to Halakhah.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION -- RETURNING TO TRADITION: PARADOX OR CHALLENGE -- THE TENSE ENCOUNTER WITH MODERNITY -- SOLOVEITCHIK: JEWISH THOUGHT CONFRONTS MODERNITY -- COMPARTMENTALIZATION: FROM ERNST SIMON TO YESHAYAHU LEIBOWITZ -- THE HARMONIOUS ENCOUNTER WITH MODERNITY -- RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT IN A SECULARIZED WORLD: ELIEZER GOLDMAN -- DAVID HARTMAN RENEWING THE COVENANT -- BETWEEN OLD AND NEW JUDAISM AS INTERPRETATION -- SCRIPTURE IN THE THOUGHT OF LEIBOWITZ AND SOLOVEITCHIK -- HALAKHAH IN THE THOUGHT OF LEIBOWITZ AND SOLOVEITCHIK -- ELIEZER GOLDMAN JUDAISM AS INTERPRETATION -- “MY NAME’S MY DONORS’ NAME” -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -- INDEX -- VIBS.