Neusner's book explores how attitudes in Jewish canonical writings relate to the politics of the Jews as a vanquished people.

Jacob Neusner was a prolific and innovative contributor to the study of religion for over fifty years. A scholar of rabbinic Judaism, Neusner regarded Jewish texts as data to address larger questions in the academic study of religion that he helped to formulate. Jacob Neusner on Religion offers the first full critical assessment of his thought on the subject of religion. Aaron W. Hughes delineates the stages of Neusner’s career and provides an overview of Neusner’s personal biography and critical reception. This book is essential reading for students and scholars interested in Neusner specifically, or in the history of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and philosophy of religion more broadly.

Education is at the centre of Jewish life and this book charts that development from the earliest periods through to the present. With a special emphasis on the key Talmudic period the author has carefully scrutinised both Jewish texts as well as the Greco-Roman sources to provide a comprehensive history.

Women and Families explores the complex roles of women in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Each religion specifies a positive set of virtues, but these imply a negative set as well. If the virtuous woman is a faithful wife and a nurturing mother, then what does each religion say to a woman who remains celibate, childless, or unmarried? What about the circle beyond home and family? Five scholars draw out the ambiguity of women's relation to religion and also explore how women attempt to shape their own lives as well as the larger public life.

"The Annual of Rabbinic Judaism: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern," the first and only annual with a special focus on Rabbinic Judaism, will publish principal articles, essays on method and criticism, systematic debates ("Auseinandersetzungen"), occasional notes, long book reviews, reviews of issues of scholarly journals, assessments of textbooks and instructional materials, and other media of academic discourse, scholarly and educational alike. "The Annual" fills the gap in the study of Judaism, the religion, which is left by the prevailing division of Rabbinic Judaism into the standard historical periods (ancient, medieval, modern) that in fact do not apply; and by the common treatment of Judaism in bits and pieces (philosophy, mysticism, law, homiletics, institutional history, for example), which obscures the fundamental unity and continuity of Rabbinic Judaism from beginning to the present. The 2000 issue contains articles by Ithamar Gruenwald, Dvora Weisberg, Jacob Neusner, Jose Faur, Simcha Fishbane, Norman Solomon, and Dov Schwartz, as well as reviews by Jacob Neusner, Herbert W. Basser, and Gunter Stemberger.

America's foremost scholar on formative Judaism examines the issue of gender as it appears in the corpus of rabbinic literature and arrives at some provocative conclusions. While the structure of Judaism based on the dual Torah is clearly masculine in orientation, the substructure--the religious system that shapes its values and perception--is androgynous, an individual conjunction of genders. In fact, the higher values, as defined by the relevant writings, prove to be feminine.

Publisher Description

What happens when two prolific religious scholars sit down and, together, read sacred texts of their different religions?

Uncovers connections between modern Jewish philosophers and classical rabbinic thought, arguing for rethinking of Judaism, politics, and violence.

A classic in the making, this groundbreaking book is a thought-provoking, must-have resource for all religious readers. It will, no doubt, lead to challenging and invigorating conversations about the role of religious priests, brothers, and sisters today.Twenty-Third Publications