Description
Book SynopsisRefusing to accept anything but ever-increasing levels of human responsibility within a religious framework, covenantal thinkers audaciously suggest that the covenant empowers humanity, as it binds and inhibits divinity. This is a reformulation of recurrent issues within the Jewish tradition, and one which pays homage to the modern context from which it emerges. Hartman and Borowitz grew up in the same mid-century American academic and social environment, and the product of that upbringing has a significant impact on the subsequent theories which they promote. Both thinkers have attracted a considerable following, but very few scholars have discussed them together. Cooper here for the first time works toward understanding their work in comparison with each other, and with covenant as the central focus and framework.
Trade Review""Simon Cooper's valuable study consists of a detailed and sophisticated comparison of the notion of covenant in the thought to two contemporary Jewish theologians, David Hartman and Eugene Borowitz. Other important thinkers who are brought into the discussion in some depth include J.B. Soloveitchik and Irving Greenberg, and, in lesser detail, Maimonides, Hermann Cohen, and Martin Buber. The focus of the comparison is on the relevant weight given to the religious values of authority and of autonomy. Cooper's work represents a significant contribution to our understanding of two outstanding Jewish theologians. It demonstrates familiarity with the scholarship on its subject and is comprehensible and well-written; the topic may be complex, but the presentation is crystal-clear.""
—Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish History and Thought, University of Haifa
