Maimonides in his world : portrait of a Mediterranean thinker / Sarah Stroumsa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stroumsa, Sarah.

Series:

Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the ancient to the modern world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy, Medieval.

Intellectual life--History.

Intellectual life.

Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204.

Maimonides, Moses.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

While the great medieval philosopher, theologian, and physician Maimonides is acknowledged as a leading Jewish thinker, his intellectual contacts with his surrounding world are often described as related primarily to Islamic philosophy. Maimonides in His World challenges this view by revealing him to have wholeheartedly lived, breathed, and espoused the rich Mediterranean culture of his time. Sarah Stroumsa argues that Maimonides is most accurately viewed as a Mediterranean thinker who consistently interpreted his own Jewish tradition in contemporary multicultural terms. Maimonides spent his entire life in the Mediterranean region, and the religious and philosophical traditions that fed his thought were those of the wider world in which he lived. Stroumsa demonstrates that he was deeply influenced not only by Islamic philosophy but by Islamic culture as a whole, evidence of which she finds in his philosophy as well as his correspondence and legal and scientific writings. She begins with a concise biography of Maimonides, then carefully examines key aspects of his thought, including his approach to religion and the complex world of theology and religious ideas he encountered among Jews, Christians, Muslims, and even heretics; his views about science; the immense and unacknowledged impact of the Almohads on his thought; and his vision of human perfection. This insightful cultural biography restores Maimonides to his rightful place among medieval philosophers and affirms his central relevance to the study of medieval Islam.

Contents:

Maimonides and Mediterranean culture

Mediterranean cultures

Maimonides as a Mediterranean thinker

Horizons

Transformations in the Jewish world

Maimnonides and Saadia

The theological context of Maimonides' thought

Islamic theology

Heresies, Jewish and Muslim

An Almohad "fundamentalist"?

Almohads

Maimonides and the Almohads

Legal aspects

Theology

Exegesis and political philosophy

Philosophy and astronomy

Conclusion

La longue duree : Maimonides as a phenomenologist of religion

Sabians

Maimonides as an historian of religion

"A wise and understanding people?" : the religion of the people

A critical mind : Mamonides as scientist

Medicine and science

"Ravings" : Maimonides' concept of pseudo-science

"From Moses to Moses" : Maimonides' vision of perfection

"True felicity" : the hereafter in Maimonides' thought

Issues of life and death : the controversy regarding resurrection

"Gates for the righteous nation" : the philosopher as leader.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-217) and index.

ISBN:

9786612639302

9781282639300

1282639307

9781400831326

1400831326

OCLC:

697174324