Search Results (9)

The capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the extirpation of various heresies in the twelfth and thirteen centuries, the gradual expansion of Christian rule in the Iberian peninsula, and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity there during the fourteenth century, all seemed to support a Christian triumphalism that imagined that as the End Time approached, Jews and other infidels would inevitably be absorbed into the Church. Nonetheless, an expanding medieval awareness of the many ‘Others’ beyond Christendom contributed to Christian anxieties that Jews (or Muslims) might expand their number through mass conversion, and not Christians. This paper will examine some sources of this anxiety. Full article

The biblical episode of the encounter between Moses and the Pharaoh turned out to be a matrix of speculations in Judaism about the messianic drama. Nahmanides contributed to it in his dispute with Paulus Christianus by assuming that the Messiah will go to the Pope as part of the messianic scenario. Some few decades later, the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (1240—c.1292) reports about his intention to meet the Pope in 1280. Scholars differed as to what was the purpose of this intention. The present study considers a series of passages written by the Kabbalist, which include inclusive language insofar as he was addressing not only the Jews but also other religions, in order to elucidate the succinct sentence found in one of his writings. In my opinion, those passages are related to his inclusive vision of the meaning of Yahadut, referring to religious persons who acknowledge the centrality of the divine name, and consequentially, Abulafia was concerned with some form of religious dialogue with the Pope. This more open tone is found in the claim that as a Messiah, Abulafia preached to the Gentiles and discussed esoteric topics with a Christian. Full article

The Torah is central to Judaism. Jesus’s relationship with it sparks conflict with Christianity. Some Jews think that Jesus violated the Torah, while some Christians believe that he sinlessly followed it. This clash escalated on 22 June 2023, when Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested a Messianic convention in Jerusalem. Social media videos and comments highlighted Jesus’s purported Torah compliance, placing Matthew 5:17 at the center stage. The comments proved indicative of the gaps within the literature as neither determined all the unique Written and Oral Torahic/legal issues raised within the Gospels nor quantified the extent of Jesus’s compliance. To address these gaps, this study employs artificial intelligence (LDA), statistics, and legal analysis and exegesis to determine Jesus’s compliance with the Torah, Mishnah, Talmud, and Mishneh Torah. The findings show the Gospels’ consensus: Mark, Luke, and John reflect that Jesus was non-Torah-compliant (14.80, 43.80, and 0.00%, respectively); Matthew states otherwise (70.80%). Overall, the study revealed that Jesus kept 79 of 162 Written and Oral Torah laws (48.80%). This study has significant implications for Christian doctrines, the definition(s) of sin, and the missionizing ethnoreligion members and serves as a case study that illustrates AI’s impact on religious authority (i.e., clergy, scholarship, and doctrines). Full article

This article traces the emergence of what is nowadays called “postsecular” religion from German-Jewish philosophy of the 1920s and 1930s. The three different cases of Franz Rosenzweig, Alexander Altmann, and Leo Strauss impel us to pay particular attention to a few recurring argumentative and rhetorical strategies. The emergence of postsecularism marks a shift in the epistemic foundations of Jewish religious thought, which had long been under pressure from secular European thought. Beginning with Rosenzweig, Jewish philosophy used secular categories of European philosophy to facilitate a return to the foundations of Judaism, eventually turning against what it sees as the epistemic weaknesses of secularism itself. This article traces the new phenomenon to Rosenzweig’s evolving view of secularism, especially to his ridicule of Siegfried Kracauer’s secular messianism, before examining a few key arguments in his book The Star of Redemption (1921). A brief discussion of Alexander Altmann’s writings of the early 1930s provides that even modern Orthodox Jewish thought, which had never been “secular”, used postsecular categories and arguments to make the philosophical case for orthodoxy. Leo Strauss’s introduction to his Philosophy and Law (1935) provides a far more elaborated form of Rosenzweig’s argument. As this article seeks to show, postsecular Jewish thought comes with a slight twist of epistemic relativism, particularly when it comes to the juxtaposition of the Biblical and scientific “world-views”. But here it merely draws the full consequences of modern science, beating scientism with its own weapons. Furthermore, religious thought in the 20th century had no other option than to rebuild itself on postsecular grounds. Full article

In this essay I offer an outline of a theology of survival as it emerges from the writings of the three modern Marrano thinkers: Michel de Montaigne, Baruch Spinoza, and Jacques Derrida. I will argue that, in their thought which is deeply concerned with the apology of life, the Marrano choice of living on over the martyrological death becomes affirmed as the right thing to do despite the price of forced conversion—and that this choice, once reflected and accepted, modifies the Jewish doctrine of life (torat hayim), by adding to it a new messianic dimension. In my interpretation, the Marranos will emerge as the agents of the messianic inversion, leading from the tragic predicament of the victims of coercion to the radical hope of the “rejected stones” and capable of once again reinventing and rejuvenating the messianic message of the Abrahamic religions, conceived as God’s superior commandment to choose life. From Montaigne, through Spinoza, to Derrida, life understood primarily as survival becomes an object of a new affirmation: it begins to glow as a secret treasure of Judaism which the Marranos simultaneously left behind and preserved in a new messianic-universal form. Full article

This article offers a critical analysis of the dispute between two prominent twentieth-century Jewish thinkers—Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem—on the temporal nature of Jewish messianism, particularly the messianism of the Lurianic kabbalah. Whereas Strauss uses Scholem’s authority to criticize the idea of progress and claims that the messianic idea of Lurianism as interpreted by Scholem is purely restorative, Scholem actually argues for its dialectical nature: neither progressive nor regressive but seeking to synthesize the past and future in the utopian figure of “restoring” the original potentiality. The purpose of my analysis is twofold: to expose Strauss’s misreading of Scholem’s theory which has so far escaped the critical attention of scholars, and to contribute to the debate on religion and change by deconstructing the apparent opposition of progress and return (or utopia and restoration) in Jewish messianic tradition. Full article

Supersessionism, in the sense of advancing upon and thereby replacing an anterior tradition, is intrinsic to both Jewish and Christian identity. The move forward is to acknowledge it rather than debate or deny it, and then to determine how its presence does not preclude positive roles for the superseded group. Because Christian supersessionism is today a primary interest in inter-religious dialogue, this article focuses on how it has been and might be approached. Attempts to deny supersessionism in the New Testament must be based in hermeneutics since historical-critical exegesis cannot secure this conclusion. Today, interest in Christian supersessionism is driven not only by theological concerns but also factors concerning identity, including the role of messianic Judaism in Church communities; approaches to Zionism, the “scandal of particularity,” ethnic identity, and debates over cultural appropriation. Full article

Since the early days of Christianity, it was generally accepted that a person could be either a Jew or a Christian, but not both. This, however, changed in the late nineteenth century. Yitzhak Leib Josowitz was a young Jew who studied at Hungary’s top yeshivas and ordained as a rabbi. Shortly after settling in New York in 1892, he converted, ordained a priest, changed his name to Leopold Cohn, and became a missionary. Cohn promoted a relatively new missionary approach which encouraged Jews to retain their identity and traditions, but also to adopt Jesus as their messiah. This, he claimed, would not only make them better Jews, but would also win them a higher spiritual status than people who were born Christians. Cohn also convinced many Christians to donate to his mission, which he called The Chosen People. After his death in 1937 Leopold was succeeded by his son Joseph, who greatly expanded the mission’s outreach. In time the missionary approach Cohn developed was adopted by other missions and became known as Messianic Judaism. Today, the dozens of messianic missions have millions of members and one of the most active ones is Cohn’s Chosen People which continue its operation more than 125 years after its establishment. Full article

The article analyzes the influence of the kabbalistic doctrine of Sabbatianism on the messianic philosophy of Giorgio Agamben. I argue against Simon Critchley that Agamben’s critique of the sovereign law is not inspired by Marcion’s idea of the total annihilation of law but by Sabbatai Zevi’s project of deactivating its repressive function. I further argue that Agamben also adopts the Sabbatian idea of Marranic messianism, which makes him repeatedly contaminate the Jewish tradition with foreign influences. Although this strategy is potentially fruitful, it eventually leads Agamben to overemphasize antinomianism and problematically associate all Jewish-based messianism with the radical critique of law. In the article, I demonstrate that things are more complex and even in the openly antinomian works of Walter Benjamin—Agamben’s greatest philosophical inspiration—Jewish law is endued with some emancipatory potential. Full article