Abraham
The First Jew
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Publishing:25th Mar '25
£16.99
This title is due to be published on 25th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The story of Abraham, the first Jew, portrayed as two lives lived by one person, paralleling the contradictions in Judaism throughout its history
In this new biography of Abraham, Judaism’s foundational figure, Anthony Julius offers an account of the origins of a fundamental struggle within Judaism between skepticism and faith, critique and affirmation, thinking for oneself and thinking under the direction of another. Julius describes Abraham’s life as two separate lives, and as a version of the collective life of the Jewish people.
Abraham’s first life is an early adulthood of questioning the polytheism of his home city of Ur Kasdim until its ruler, Nimrod, condemns him to death and he is rescued, he believes, by a miracle. In his second life, Abraham’s focus is no longer on critique but rather on conversion and on his leadership over his growing household, until God’s command that he sacrifice his son Isaac. This test, the Akedah (or “Binding”), ends with another miracle, as he believes, but as Julius argues, it is also a catastrophe for Abraham. The Akedah represents for him an unsurpassed horizon—and in Jewish life thereafter. This book focuses on Abraham as leader of the first Jewish project, Judaism, and the unresolvable, insurmountable crisis that the Akedah represents—both in his leadership and in Judaism itself.
“This brilliantly original and often deeply moving book tells the story of Abraham so as to set out a narrative of ‘faith’ itself—the relation of faith to reason, the abiding tension between claimed conviction and inescapable or tragic questioning, the way in which, like Abraham, we may be both ‘residents’ and ‘aliens’ in the world of discourse about God. A unique and searching masterpiece.”—Rowan Williams, theologian and poet, University of Cambridge
“Anthony Julius’s Abraham is beautifully written, provocative, and wise.”—Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago
“Fascinating and profound, scholarly and playful, philosophical and aesthetic, Anthony Julius’s Abraham is an original and compelling hybrid that brings Abraham to life and through him discusses the nature of faith and his own personal philosophy.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
“Learned, rich in revelation, beautifully articulated and researched. In an age when the phrase ‘the Abrahamic religions’ is tossed about with ease, it is more than fascinating to follow Anthony Julius’s meditations on the man himself.”—Stephen Fry, author of Mythos
ISBN: 9780300266801
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
392 pages