Judaism and the Philosophy of Religion / David Shatz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shatz, David, author.

Series:

Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society.

Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish philosophy.

Judaism and philosophy.

Religion--Philosophy.

Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (362 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Judaism & the Philosophy of Religion

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

Analytic philosophy of religion is a vibrant area of inquiry, but it has generally focused on generic forms of theism or on Christianity. David Shatz here offers a new and fresh approach to the field in a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the analytic philosophy of religion from the perspective of Judaism. Exploring classical Jewish texts about philosophical topics in light of the concepts and arguments at the heart of analytic philosophy, he demonstrates how each tradition illuminates the other, yielding a deeper understanding of both Jewish sources and general philosophical issues. Shatz also advances growing efforts to imagine Jewish philosophy not only as an engrossing, invaluable part of Jewish intellectual history, but also as a creative, constructive enterprise that mines the methods and literature of contemporary philosophy. His book offers new pathways to think deeply about God, evil, morality, freedom, ethics, and religious diversity, among other topics.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Series page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Stylistic Notes

Introduction: The Varieties of Jewish Philosophy

Studying versus Doing

Opposite Trajectories

Models for Jewish Philosophy

On Selecting Materials

Desiderata

On Contextualizing Sources

An Overview of the Chapters

Part I God

1 Is Perfect Being Theology an Imperfect Theology?

Challenge I: Can We Identify Perfections Correctly?

Disagreements about Attributes

Is There a Problem Here?

Further Challenges to Doing PBT

Challenge II: Apophaticism and Negative Theology - Can We Speak about God at All?

Negative Theology and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy

Epistemological Formulations

Ontological Formulations

Deontic Formulation

Aretaic Formulation

Must We Accept Negative Theology?

Challenge III: Biblical and Rabbinic Theology - Imperfect Being?

The Argument from Biblical Texts

The Argument from Theological Conundrums

Responses to the Objections

Challenge IV: Antirealist Understandings of God-Talk

Conclusion

2 Where in the World Is God?: Nature and Divine Action

Religious Considerations behind Theistic Naturalism

Consideration 1: The Pitfalls of Occasionalism

Consideration 2: Naturalism and Religious Values

Value 1: God's Wisdom and Glory

Value 2: Human Responsibility

Value 3: Explaining Evil

Value 4: Guarding against Egocentrism

From Mindset to Metaphysics

3 The Problem(s) of Evil

Preliminaries: Stating the Problems

Evil and Divine Command Morality

Protest

Rejections of the Retributivist Theodicy

The Book of Job

Ecclesiastes

The Rejection of R. Ammi

Specific Observed Cases

The Abundance of Other Theodicies

Afflictions of Love.

Collective Suffering and Hester Panim (Hiding of the Face)

Antitheodicy

Part II Human Beings

4 Problems of Free Will: The Bible's Near-Silence

Philosophical Challenges

Problems of Definition

Biblical Silence

Foreknowledge versus Free Will

Coercive Incentives

Hardening of Hearts

Divine Interventions

Unrationalized, Seemingly Whimsical Actions

Do the Philosophical Problems Matter?

5 "It Was Not You Who Sent Me Here": Free Will and God's Foreordaining of History

Reading the Bible Philosophically

The Problem

Assigning Responsibility: Joseph's and the Brothers' Perspectives

Assigning Responsibility: Some Traditional Approaches

Approach 1: No Responsibility

Approach 2: Preserving Human Responsibility - God Arranges Only Circumstances

Approach 3: Affirming Responsibility - the General and the Particular

The Inevitability Argument

The Causation Version

The Free Will Version

Naḥmanides and Fulfilling God's Wishes

6 How Free Is the Will?: The Challenge of Scientific Determinism

Restrictivism

Determinism and Medieval Astrology

The Physical Roots of Sin

"The Small Point of Freedom"

Devaluation

The Question of Arrogance

Naḥmanides and Dessler

Compatibilism

Subthesis (A): Indeterminism Excludes Free Will

Subthesis (B):Utilitarian Considerations Suffice for Responsibility and Reactive Attitudes

Subthesis (C): Free Will Does Not Require Alternative Possibilities

Libertarianism versus Compatibilism

Selfhood

The First-Person Perspective

Akrasia versus Compulsion

Evildoers

Brainwashing

Coercion

A Historical Reflection

7 Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Death and the Afterlife

Key Texts

Arguments vs. Reasons

Reasons for the Immortality Conception

Plato's Legacy

Naturalism.

Epistemology

Rav's Depiction

The Same Body

Reasons for the Resurrection Conception

Individuation

Proper Compensation

Miracles

Fit and Systematicity

Symbolism

Psychological Impact

Reasons for the Reincarnation Conception

Reasons for the Legacy Conception

The Value of an Afterlife

Why Is There Death?

Part III God in Relation to Humanity

8 Divine Commands and Human Morality

Questions 1-2: Is There an Independent Standard of Ethics? Is It Knowable?

Biblical Materials

The Akedah (Binding of Isaac)

The Garden of Eden

Gratitude and Moral Judgment

The Epistemic Question in Talmud and Midrash

Question 3: Religious Motivation

Submission to God vs. Reason

Submission to God vs. Feeling

Question 4: If There Is a Correct Standard of Ethics Independent of God's Will, Does It Play a Role in Halakhic Decision-Making?

Question 5: What Is the Content of Jewish Ethics?

Summation

9 One God?: Judaism and Religious Diversity

Does Judaism Believe That Other Religions Are True?

Can Adherents of Other Religions Attain Salvation in the Hereafter?

Does Judaism Aim at Converting Gentiles?

Practical Considerations: Interfaith Relations

Practical Considerations: Particularism as a Means to Universalism

Ethical Considerations: Group Identity

Ethical Considerations: Preserving Freedom

Ethical Considerations: Privacy

Ethical Considerations: Reciprocity

Philosophical Considerations: Pluralism

Philosophical Considerations: The Value of Diversity

Philosophical Considerations: Ethnicity and Nationhood

Philosophical Considerations: It's Not Broken

Philosophical Considerations: The Role of Religions in History

Part IV Faith and Reason

10 Reason, Faith, and Some Spaces in Between

Simple Faith versus Rationalism.

Descriptive Rationalism, Descriptive Fideism

The Hybrid Models

Model 1: Believing the Absurd

Model 2: Expansion by Inference

Model 3: Confirming or Strengthening Faith

Model 4: Overdetermination - the Consistency of Having Faith and Having Reasons

Model 5: Belief "Based on" Faith but Having Reasons

Model 6: Grounding the Tradition

Model 7: Resilience, Recalcitrance, Conservatism

Model 8: The Cognitive Heritage Model

Model 9: Prescriptive (normative) Rationalism - Medieval Versions

Models 10, 11, and 12: Fideistic Aspects of Rationalism

Model 10: Answering the Heretic

Model 11: Attaining Honest-to-Goodness Knowledge

Model 12: Purifying (or Rectifying) Belief

Model 13: Dialectical Faith - A Hybrid Model in Ḥasidic Thought

Model 14: Pragmatic Arguments - a Jewish Pascal?

Part V Concluding Reflections

11 Features of Jewish Philosophy: A Closing Assessment

Bibliography

Index of Biblical and Rabbinic Sources

General Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Feb 2026).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-44479-4

1-009-44481-6

OCLC:

1552153214