REL 371 - Paths in Jewish Thought

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU.
Writers, philosophers, and scholars have engaged a fascinating array of questions from within the Jewish tradition since before the Common Era. In this seminar, we will survey the works of particular Jewish thinkers, from antiquity to the modern day, with special attention to certain topics and historical developments. Subjects to be considered include the Jewish people’s encounter with the religious or cultural “other,” the opposition or congruence of faith and reason, the persistence of evil, the nature of God and scripture, and what it means to be “Jewish.” The structure of the course will constitute a “who’s who” of Jewish thinkers through history, such as Philo of Alexandria, Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, and Ahad ha-Am. The final project will also allow students to discover and present the thought of a Jewish intellectual not included in this selective survey at the end of the semester.