Description
Book SynopsisJudaism is often described as a religion that tolerates, even celebrates arguments with God. In Pious Irreverence, Dov Weiss has written the first scholarly study of the premodern roots of this distinctively Jewish theology of protest, examining its origins and development in the rabbinic age (70 CE-800 CE).
Trade Review"The question of God's injustice is eternal. In bringing us such a trove of sources and in laying them out in an ordered form, Weiss has provided not only a scholarly but also a theological gift." *
Reviews in Religion & Theology *
"
Pious Irreverence is a well-conceived and highly original work that asks to what extent and in what way the human may confront divinity, considering the evident imperfections in divinely created reality. Dov Weiss makes a major contribution to the study of rabbinic literature and demonstrates remarkably wide expertise also in early Christian and Patristic texts, contemporary studies of Judaism and Christianity, and literary theory." * Marc Bregman, University of North Carolina, Greensboro *
"In
Pious Irreverence, Dov Weiss makes numerous important contributions: He traces the existence of an antiprotest tradition in rabbinic Judaism from the tannaitic period to the amoraic; he identifies fascinating differences between the ways Jewish and Christian antiprotestors quarantine biblical protests; and most importantly, he underscores the crucial role of the
Tanhuma-Yelammedenu literature in radicalizing the protest tradition." * Tzvi Novick, University of Notre Dame *
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Confrontation as Sin
Chapter 2. From Sin to Virtue
Chapter 3. Varieties of Confrontation
Chapter 4. Confrontation as Ethics
Chapter 5. The Humanization of God
Chapter 6. Divine Concessions
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
