20th Century Jewish Religious Thought - by Arthur A Cohen & Paul Mendes-Flohr (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published: Contemporary Jewish religious thought. New York: Scribner, 1987.

Book Synopsis

JPS is proud to reissue Cohen and Mendes-Flohr's classic work, perhaps the most important, comprehensive anthology available on 20th century Jewish thought. This outstanding volume presents 140 concise yet authoritative essays by renowned Jewish figures Eugene Borowitz, Emil Fackenheim, Blu Greenberg, Susannah Heschel, Jacob Neusner, Gershom Scholem, Adin Steinsaltz, and many others. They define and reflect upon such central ideas as charity, chosen people, death, family, love, myth, suffering, Torah, tradition and more. With entries from Aesthetics to Zionism, this book provides striking insights into both the Jewish experience and the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Review Quotes

"A major achievement."--New York Times Book Review

"Excellent . . . Not only scholars but general readers will profit from this superb anthology."--Library Journal

"The best that contemporary Jewry has to offer."--Hadassah

"The great strength of these essays is that they were written for the layman, without academic jargon but without oversimplification. No other reference book has brought me so much pleasure over the years."--Jewish Herald Voice

"There's perhaps no way that any reviewer, in such a relatively small space, could possibly convey the riches that have been amassed ... between the covers of 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought."--Jewish Exponent

About the Author

Arthur A. Cohen was the author of Martin Buber (1959), The Natural and the Supernatural Jew: An Historical and Theological Introduction (1962), The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition (1970), and The Tremendum: A Theological Interpretation of the Holocaust (1981). He also edited the theological writings of Milton Steinberg. An acclaimed novelist, his Artists and Enemies was published posthumously in October 1986. Paul Mendes-Flohr is Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. He is the editor of a series on German-Jewish literature and cultural history for the University of Chicago Press, and he co-edited one of the seminal works of Jewish studies: The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (1980). He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and has taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.