Contemporary Covenantal Thought: Interpretations of Covenant in the Thought of David Hartman and Eugene Borowitz

by Simon Cooper

Overview

Refusing to accept anything but ever-increasing levels of human responsibility within a religious framework, covenantal thinkers audaciously suggest that the covenant empowers humanity as it binds and inhibits divinity. This is a reformulation of recurrent issues within the Jewish tradition, and one which pays homage to the modern context from which it emerges. Hartman and Borowitz grew up in the same mid-century American academic and social environment, and the product of that upbringing has a significant impact on the subsequent theories which they promote. Both thinkers have attracted a considerable following, but very few scholars have discussed them together. Cooper here for the first time works toward understanding their work in comparison with each other, and with covenant as the central focus and framework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936235698
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	12/01/2011
Series:	Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Simon Cooper (PhD King’s College, London) is a teaching fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies and teaches at the MA program in Jewish Studies at King’s College, London.

Editorial Reviews

Simon Cooper's valuable study consists of a detailed and sophisticated comparison of the notion of covenant in the thought of two contemporary Jewish theologians, David Hartman and Eugene Borowitz. Other important thinkers who are brought into the discussion in some depth include J. B. Soloveitchik and Irving Greenberg, and, in lesser detail, Maimonides, Hermann Cohen, and Martin Buber. The focus of the comparison is on the relevant weight given to the religious values of authority and of autonomy. Cooper's work represents a significant contribution to our understanding of two outstanding Jewish theologians. It demonstrates familiarity with the scholarship on its subject and is comprehensible and well-written; the topic may be complex, but the presentation is crystal-clear.

Menachem Kellner

Cooper (London School of Jewish Studies and Jewish Studies, King's College, London) analyzes issues relating to the nature of the divine-human relationship in the work of two contemporary Jewish theologians. Among his topics are American Jewish theology and society in the post-Holocaust period, the sources and contexts of covenantal thought, the autonomous thrust in Judaism, covenantal ethics and law, and the boundaries of covenantal responsibility. The study is revised from his PhD dissertation at King's College, London.

Annotation (c)2012 Book News Inc. Portland

Cooper is probably most illuminating in his probing discussion of the historical and cultural context from which Hartman and Borowitz's covenantal thought emerged. . . .Cooper's lucid and accessible analysis of Hartman's covenantal theology shows how Hartman responds to what he considers the most powerful element of the modern critique of religion: the tendency of religion in general and Judaism in particular to promote feelings of resignation and powerlessness.

Dr. Ari Ackerman

Cooper is probably most illuminating in his probing discussion of the historical and cultural context from which Hartman and Borowitz's covenantal thought emerged. . . .Cooper's lucid and accessible analysis of Hartman's covenantal theology shows how Hartman responds to what he considers the most powerful element of the modern critique of religion: the tendency of religion in general and Judaism in particular to promote feelings of resignation and powerlessness.

The Covenantal Thought of David Hartman - Dr. Ari Ackerman Jewish Ideas Daily

Simon Cooper's valuable study consists of a detailed and sophisticated comparison of the notion of covenant in the thought of two contemporary Jewish theologians, David Hartman and Eugene Borowitz. Other important thinkers who are brought into the discussion in some depth include J. B. Soloveitchik and Irving Greenberg, and, in lesser detail, Maimonides, Hermann Cohen, and Martin Buber. The focus of the comparison is on the relevant weight given to the religious values of authority and of autonomy. Cooper's work represents a significant contribution to our understanding of two outstanding Jewish theologians. It demonstrates familiarity with the scholarship on its subject and is comprehensible and well-written; the topic may be complex, but the presentation is crystal-clear.

Menachem Kellner Professor of Jewish History and Thought

Simon Cooper's valuable study consists of a detailed and sophisticated comparison of the notion of covenant in the thought of two contemporary Jewish theologians, David Hartman and Eugene Borowitz. Other important thinkers who are brought into the discussion in some depth include J. B. Soloveitchik and Irving Greenberg, and, in lesser detail, Maimonides, Hermann Cohen, and Martin Buber. The focus of the comparison is on the relevant weight given to the religious values of authority and of autonomy. Cooper's work represents a significant contribution to our understanding of two outstanding Jewish theologians. It demonstrates familiarity with the scholarship on its subject and is comprehensible and well-written; the topic may be complex, but the presentation is crystal-clear.--Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish History and Thought, University of Haifa

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