Modern Jewish Thought and Philosophy

Dear Colleagues,

We understand the expression “modern Jewish philosophy” in a broad sense as the encounter between philosophy and Judaism in modern times. This includes, for instance, Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem as a reaction to Spinoza’s Theo-political Treatise, Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism, Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption, Abraham Joshua Heschel’s philosophy of Judaism, Buber’s dialogical thinking, and Levinas’s Jewish and philosophical writings. Modern Jewish philosophers deal with themes as the interpretation of Judaism as humanism, and with theories on Jewish hermeneutics or on the relation between rabbinical language and the language of philosophy. They expound on the centrality of language as in Rosenzweig’s ‘New Thinking’, Levinas’s ethical metaphysics and Buber’s dialogical philosophy. Modern Jewish philosophy also discusses and analyzes post-Holocaust thinking, as is the case in Hannah Arendt’s or Emil Fackenheim’s philosophy. Moreover, it studies different critical views on the relation between Judaism and other religions. It builds theories on the compatibility between Judaism and pluralism, and on the possibility of interreligious relationships from a Jewish vantage point. Finally, modern Jewish philosophy focuses on the place of Zionism in contemporary Jewish thought. This may include Buber’s theo-political thinking as a critique of Carl Schmitt’s political theology or Levinas’s monotheistic politics. Authors who participate in this Special Issue are invited to reflect on the relation between philosophy and Jewish wisdom.

In this Special Issue, we further encourage authors to write scholarly articles on modern Jewish thought. Research areas may include modern rabbinical writings, as well as new Jewish views on feminism, postmodernism, and environmentalism. Papers may analyze the rabbinical writings of, for instance, Dov Ber Soloveitchik, Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, Ha-Nazir (David Cohen), Shagar (Shimon Gershon Rosenberg), and Jonathan Sacks. They may renew the study of neo-Hasidic thinkers as Hillel Zeitlin, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Arthur Green. We expect the authors to contribute to new perspectives on Jewish life and thought in modern times.

Prof. Dr. Ephraim Meir
Prof. Dr. Hanoch Ben Pazi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.