Description
Book SynopsisIn Cultures in Collision and Conversation, David Berger addresses three broad themes in Jewish intellectual history: Jewish approaches to cultures external to Judaism and the controversies triggered by this issue in medieval and modern times; the impact of Christian challenges and differing philosophical orientations on Jewish interpretation of the Bible; and Messianic visions, movements, and debates from antiquity to the present. These essays include a monograph-length study of Jewish attitudes toward general culture in medieval and early modern times, analyses of the thought of Maimonides and Nahmanides, an assessment of the reactions to the most recent messianic movement in Jewish history, and reflections on the value of the academic study of Judaism.
Trade ReviewâFor decades, David Berger has been profoundly enriching our knowledge of the Jewish past and present. This new collection of essays exhibits Berger at his best. The essays are wide-ranging in time and space, are rich in knowledge and citation of the sources, are meticulous and convincing in their argumentation, and show a historian with deep warmth and empathy for the peopleâpast and presentâabout whom he writes.â âRobert Chazan, S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University|âBergerâs wise and witty essays are at once learned and effervescent, balanced and engaged essential reading for anyone interested in the Jewish past and its (mis)uses, and a pleasure to read.â âBernard Septimus, Jacob E. Safra Professor of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization, Harvard University|The essays contained in this volume represent a crowning achievement in a life of scholarship that primarily has been devoted to exploring polemical interaction of Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages...Cultures in Collision and Conversation will find a proud place alongside his other scholarly publications.|A fine conspectus of David Bergerâs variegated contributions to Jewish intellectual history. . . . Full of references to primary sources and informed by an enviable mastery of the voluminous secondary literature on a very broad topic [the chapter on Judaism and general culture] abounds in the sort of thought-provoking insights and limpid formulations that Bergerâs deft pen routinely generates. . . . Besides its impressive substance, Bergerâs tome merits appreciation in terms of style and tone. . . . His writing brims with crisp formulations and a nice increment of witty (at times rabinically inflected) turns of phrase.
