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The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167–1900

Adam Shear author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:19th Jul '12

£44.99

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The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167–1900 cover

This book approaches Judah Halevi's Book of the Kuzari by focusing on its reception.

In this book, Adam Shear examines the ways that the twelfth-century Book of the Kuzari became a classic of Jewish thought. Contrary to modern perceptions, Shear shows that it was often read as a way toward reconciling reason and faith and of negotiating between particularism and universalism.Judah Halevi's Book of the Kuzari is a defense of Judaism that has enjoyed an almost continuous transmission since its composition in the twelfth century. By surveying the activities of readers, commentators, copyists and printers for more than 700 years, Adam Shear examines the ways that the Kuzari became a classic of Jewish thought. Today, the Kuzari is usually understood as the major statement of an anti-rationalist and ethnocentric approach to Judaism and is often contrasted with the rationalism and universalism of Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed. But this conception must be seen as a modern construction, and the reception history of the Kuzari demonstrates that many earlier readers of the work understood it as offering a way toward reconciling reason and faith and of negotiating between particularism and universalism.

'This book represents an astonishingly thorough and erudite discussion of the reception history of one of Judaism's most important books. The research is wide-ranging, deeply perceptive, and meticulously documented. An unparalleled achievement, this volume stands with the best sort of Jewish intellectual history.' Allan Arkush, Binghamton University
'This book can only be described as a masterful treatment of its subject. Shear's scholarship is astonishing in its breadth. In the course of following the Kuzari through history, Shear sheds a great deal of light on a series of widely disparate intellectual milieus. In the final analysis, his research provides us with very important insights into a past that is widely misconstrued in the light of the present.' Matt Goldish, The Ohio State University

ISBN: 9781107404991

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 23mm

Weight: 590g

402 pages