Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism

by Geoffrey Cantor, Marc Swetlitz

Overview

Darwin’s theory of evolution transformed the life sciences and made profound claims about human origins and the human condition, topics often viewed as the prerogative of religion. As a result, evolution has provoked a wide variety of religious responses, ranging from angry rejection to enthusiastic acceptance. While Christian responses to evolution have been studied extensively, little scholarly attention has been paid to Jewish reactions. Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism is the first extended meditation on the Jewish engagement with this crucial and controversial theory.

The contributors to Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism—from several academic disciplines and two branches of the rabbinate—present case studies showing how Jewish discussions of evolution have been shaped by the intersections of faith, science, philosophy, and ideology in specific historical contexts. Furthermore, they examine how evolutionary theory has been deployed when characterizing Jews as a race, both by Zionists and by anti-Semites. Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism addresses historical and contemporary, as well as progressive and Orthodox, responses to evolution in America, Europe, and Israel, ultimately extending the history of Darwinism into new religious domains.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226092775
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	11/15/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Geoffrey Cantor is professor of the history of science at the University of Leeds.

Marc Swetlitz has taught history of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
 
PART 1: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON JEWISH RESPONSES TO EVOLUTION
Introduction to Part 1
1 Anglo-Jewish Responses to Evolution
  Geoffrey Cantor
2 Responses to Evolution by Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist   Rabbis in Twentieth-Century America
  Marc Swetlitz
3 “Practically, I Am a Fundamentalist”: Twentieth-Century Orthodox Jews   Contend with Evolution and Its Implications
  Ira Robinson
 
PART 2: SOCIAL USES OF EVOLUTION: ANTI-SEMITISM, RACISM, AND ZIONISM
Introduction to Part 2
4 The Impact of Social Darwinism on Anti-Semitic Ideology in Germany and   Austria, 1860-1945
  Richard Weikart
5 The Evolution of Jewish Identity: Ignaz Zollschan between Jewish and   Aryan Race Theories, 1910-1945
  Paul Weindling
6 Zionism, Race, and Eugenics
  Raphael Falk
 
PART 3: EVOLUTION AND CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM
Introduction to Part 3
7 Crisis Management via Biblical Interpretation: Fundamentalism, Modern   Orthodoxy, and Genesis
  Shai Cherry
8 Torah and Madda? Evolution in the Jewish Educational Context
  Rena Selya
9 Modern Orthodoxy and Evolution: The Models of Rabbi J. B. Soloveitchik   and Rabbi A. I. Kook
  Carl Feit
10 The Order of Creation and the Emerging God: Evolution and Divine Action in the Natural World
  Lawrence Troster
 
Suggested Reading
 
Index

Editorial Reviews

"I feel that this volume will provide fresh perspectives and new ideas to consider for scholars interested in the interaction of evolution and religion."

Quarterly Review of Biology - Daniel Stoebel

"The shelf of books about Christians and Darwinian evolution is vast. . . . About Jews and Darwinian evolution there is now one book. Happily, it is a very good one. . . . An excellent introduction to the subject, demonstrating its interest and importance with unfailing sophistication."

Isis - Noah Efron

"These exceptional essays reveal both the depth of the theological issues raised by evolution and the breadth of Jewish responses, yielding a singularly important examination not only of Judaism but of the increasingly complex contemporary interaction of science and religion."

Choice

"[The book] will present the reader used to encountering the debates in an exclusively Christian context with an intersting counterpoint. Both the similarities and the unique aspects of Christian and Jewish responses to Darwinism are instructive."

Reports of the National Center for Science Education - Oren Harman

"This collection of ten essays supplies an additional and valuable dimension to the literature on the complex relationship between the theory of evolution and religion....[The] book expands our understanding of the diversity of opinions on the relationship of scientific ideas to religious positions. The colection also provides an interesting exploration of how Judaism confronted modernity, as well as how various European writers used evolution to support their concepts of race, racism, and anti-Semitism."

Journal of the History of Biology - Paul Lawrence Farber

The shelf of books about Christians and Darwinian evolution is vast. . . . About Jews and Darwinian evolution there is now one book. Happily, it is a very good one. . . . An excellent introduction to the subject, demonstrating its interest and importance with unfailing sophistication.

— Noah Efron

Isis

[The book] will present the reader used to encountering the debates in an exclusively Christian context with an intersting counterpoint. Both the similarities and the unique aspects of Christian and Jewish responses to Darwinism are instructive.

— Oren Harman

Reports of the National Center for Science Education

I feel that this volume will provide fresh perspectives and new ideas to consider for scholars interested in the interaction of evolution and religion.

— Daniel Stoebel

Quarterly Review of Biology

This collection of ten essays supplies an additional and valuable dimension to the literature on the complex relationship between the theory of evolution and religion....[The] book expands our understanding of the diversity of opinions on the relationship of scientific ideas to religious positions. The colection also provides an interesting exploration of how Judaism confronted modernity, as well as how various European writers used evolution to support their concepts of race, racism, and anti-Semitism.

— Paul Lawrence Farber

Journal of the History of Biology