The term Ethical Monotheism is an important marker in Judaism’s tumultuous transition into the modern era. The term emerged in the context of culture-wars concerning the question of whether or not Jews could or should become emancipated citizens of modern European states. It appeared in arguments whether or not Judaism could be considered a Religion of Reason—a symbolic, motivational representation of a universal morality, and in debates about whether or not Judaism could or should reform itself into a Religion of Reason. This book is both a decisive departure from such discussions and an attempt to add a further, post-modern, statement to their ongoing development. As departure, it refuses to take for granted a philosophical conception of Religion of Reason as the standard for Ethical Monotheism according to which Judaism was to be evaluated or reformed. As continuation, the book undertakes a phenomenology of Jewish modes of ethical religiosity that allows it to inquire what kind of ethical monotheism Judaism might be. Through sophisticated analysis of select "snapshots," or "fragments of a hologram," guided by a robust theory of religion, the author discloses Judaic ethical monotheism as an ongoing wrestling with the meaning of justice. By closely examining five main "snapshots" of this long process—the Bible, rabbinic Judaism, Maimonides, The Zohar, and the modern philosophers, Buber and Levinas—the author offers his own constructive philosophy of Judaism and his own distinctive philosophy of religion. Ethical Monotheism offers a new way to think about Judaism as a religion and as a coherent philosophical debate, and demonstrates the need to integrate philosophy, history, cognitive psychology, anthropology, theology, and history of science in the study of "religion."

The issue of the ethical implications of monotheism is a very relevant topic from the point of view of contemporary humanities and social science, and from the perspective of the cultural and political condition in Europe and at the global scale. Therefore a scientific book devoted to this subject makes a lot of sense. Throughout the history and in present times, monotheism has been subjected to several sharp criticisms. On the other hand, we find also very different evaluations of it. They stress its positive and even crucial contribution to peace, forming of rational, non-violent, tolerant culture and society, to the scientific, political and cultural development, to democracy etc. The book offers fresh interdisciplinary perspectives - mainly from the point of view of humanities - on the ethical aspects of monotheism, broadens the scientific understanding of it, and establishes a basis for resolving conflicts to which the understanding of monotheism is relevant or even decisive.

"The issue of the ethical implications of monotheism is a very relevant topic from the point of view of contemporary humanities and social science, and from the perspective of the cultural and political condition in Europe and at the global scale. Therefore a scientific book devoted to this subject makes a lot of sense. Throughout the history and in present times, monotheism has been subjected to several sharp criticisms. On the other hand, we find also very different evaluations of it. They stress its positive and even crucial contribution to peace, forming of rational, non-violent, tolerant culture and society, to the scientific, political and cultural development, to democracy etc. The book offers fresh interdisciplinary perspectives - mainly from the point of view of humanities - on the ethical aspects of monotheism, broadens the scientific understanding of it, and establishes a basis for resolving conflicts to which the understanding of monotheism is relevant or even decisive."--

Fourteen essays by leading scholars from around the world explore the theological, philosophical, and historical connections between the three Abrahamic faiths and ethics. Timely reading for students of religion, philosophy, and ethics.

In the spirit of Dietrich's work, essays by colleagues and former students of the Brown U. professor emeritus explore the boundaries of ethical monotheistic religion historically and as a constructive resource for contemporary religious and ethical thought. Ethical monotheism, the view that monotheistic religion developed toward the prophets' central concern with individual and corporate moral behavior, has dominated modern religious thought since Kant. Dietrich traced its development in Jewish and Christian contexts in his classic monograph Cohen and Troeltsch and other works. c. Book News Inc.

Monotheism and Tolerance suggests a way to deal with the intractable problem of religiously motivated and justified violence.

Environmental destruction, poverty in the midst of obscene wealth, one war after another. Our biggest crises are getting worse. Secularism makes this inevitable by denying any moral authority higher than the ruling classes. By contrast, religious traditions offer accounts of who made us, for what purpose and how we should live, but whilst some are more constructive than others it is only monotheism, defined as divine harmony, that provides the philosophical and ethical framework necessary for people to lead better lives. Drawing on cultural analysis, political philosophy, Christian apologetics and theodicy the author shows why, in order to resolve our crises, progressives need to reaffirm the goodness of the natural environment as a blessing from a good god.

Although Franz Rosenzweig is arguably the most important Jewish philosopher of the twentieth century, his thought remains little understood. Here, Leora Batnitzky argues that Rosenzweig's redirection of German-Jewish ethical monotheism anticipates and challenges contemporary trends in religious studies, ethics, philosophy, anthropology, theology, and biblical studies. This text, which captures the hermeneutical movement of Rosenzweig's corpus, is the first to consider the full import of the cultural criticism articulated in his writings on the modern meanings of art, language, ethics, and national identity. In the process, the book solves significant conundrums about Rosenzweig's relation to German idealism, to other major Jewish thinkers, to Jewish political life, and to Christianity, and brings Rosenzweig into conversation with key contemporary thinkers. Drawing on Rosenzweig's view that Judaism's ban on idolatry is the crucial intellectual and spiritual resource available to respond to the social implications of human finitude, Batnitzky interrogates idolatry as a modern possibility. Her analysis speaks not only to the question of Judaism's relationship to modernity (and vice versa), but also to the generic question of the present's relationship to the past--a subject of great importance to anyone contemplating the modern statuses of religious tradition, reason, science, and historical inquiry. By way of Rosenzweig, Batnitzky argues that contemporary philosophers and ethicists must relearn their approaches to religious traditions and texts to address today's central ethical problems.

Laurel Schneider takes the reader on a vivid journey from the origins of "the logic of the One" - only recently dubbed monotheism - through to the modern day, where monotheism has increasingly failed to adequately address spiritual, scientific, and ethical experiences in the changing world. In Part I, Schneider traces a trajectory from the ancient history of monotheism and multiplicity in Greece, Israel, and Africa through the Constantinian valorization of the logic of the One, to medieval and modern challenges to that logic in poetry and science. She pursues an alternative and constructive approach in Part II: a "logic of multiplicity" already resident in Christian traditions in which the complexity of life and the presence of God may be better articulated. Part III takes up the open-ended question of ethics from within that multiplicity, exploring the implications of this radical and realistic new theology for the questions that lie underneath theological construction: questions of belonging and nationalism, of the possibility of love, and of unity. In this groundbreaking work of contemporary theology, Schneider shows that the One is not lost in divine multiplicity, and that in spite of its abstractions, divine multiplicity is realistic and worldly, impossible ultimately to abstract.