Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

Religion, Ecology, and Gender: A Jewish Perspective

This article examines the reasons for the limited interest in environmentalism in Judaism. The author suggests that the reasons are both historical and theological, Jews have been an urban people since the tenth century and they are also people of the book—that is a culture that sees any distraction from scholarly contemplation as less than worthy. However, over the past three decades there has been an interest and this is in response to the claim that the Judeo-Christian tradition is to blame for the environmental crisis. The author challenges the notion that nature can be seen as the base of a core ethic of care pointing out that it is violent and does not care for the weak. The article challenges earth-based spirituality as it has appropriated the kabbalah, particularly the Skehinah and suggests that a misreading underpins this approach.

Elliot R. Wolfson: Poetic thinking

Elliot R. Wolfson is Professor of Religious Studies and the Marsha and Jay Glazer Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Jewish Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century

Jewish Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century showcases living Jewish thinkers who produce innovative ideas taking into consideration theology, hermeneutics, politics, ethics, science and technology, law, gender, and ecology.

Technologizing Transcendence: A Critique of Transhumanism

We live in interesting, uncertain, and confusing times in which the human species is subject to massive technologization. New scientific advances and the emergence of new technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, genomics, robotics, informatics, telecommunication, and applied cognitive science have given rise to a new situation in which the human has become a design project. Promoting the technologization of the human species, transhumanism has become a cultural presence that expresses the Zeitgeist of our technological age. Transhumanist themes, vocabulary, values, and style frame contemporary film, science fiction, horror genre, video games, performance art, new media art, literature, and cyberpunk. This chapter argues that what gives coherence to the disparate themes of the transhumanist discourse is the quest of transcendence. The chapter analyzes how transhumanism seeks to attain transcendence by means of technology and how it conceptualizes transcendence in technological categories. This shows that the transhumanist discourse is replete with tensions and even contradictions due to the difference between “horizontal” transcendence and “vertical” transcendence: Whereas the former is about “improving” humanity so as to transcend its biological limits, the latter is about making humanity obsolete.

Introduction: Technology, Utopianism and Eschatology

Humans are tool-making animals: making and using tools are expressions of being human. Yet technology is a creation of the modern age. Although there has never been a pretechnological human society, the figure of “technology” in the sense of scientific technics is a modern invention, emerging in the late 19th century alongside the fundamental transformations of social life aff ected by the rise of industrial manufacturing and mass production of consumer products (Hughes 2005). The advent of technology has been fundamental to the transformations of the last century, altering the material conditions of modern societies, but also reshaping the imaginations of power and progress that permeate contemporary social life.

Norbert M. Samuelson: Reasoned faith

Norbert M. Samuelson is Harold and Jean Grossman Chair of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University. Trained in analytic philosophy, he has contributed to the professionalization of Jewish philosophy in America and to the field of religion and science.

Interview with Judith Plaskow

This chapter presents an interview of Judith Plaskow relevant to the discussion of her Jewish philosophical works. Judith Plaskow, Professor of Religious Studies Emerita at Manhattan College in New York, is a leading Jewish feminist theologian. She has forged a revolutionary vision of Judaism as an egalitarian religion and has argued for the inclusion of sexually marginalized groups in society in general and in Jewish society in particular. Rooted in the experience of women, her feminist Jewish theology reflects the impact of several philosophical strands, including hermeneutics, dialogical philosophy, critical theory, and process philosophy. Most active in the American Academy of Religion, she has shaped the academic discourse on women in religion while critiquing Christian feminism for lingering forms of anti-Judaism. Keywords: Christian feminism; Jewish feminist theologian; Judaism; Judith Plaskow

David R. Blumenthal: An intellectual portrait

The life, career, and writings of David R. Blumenthal encapsulate the richness of American Jewish life in the second half of the twentieth century. Blumenthal began his academic career as a historian of Judaism with a focus on the history of medieval Jewish philosophy, but in the 1980s moved away from history of ideas to constructive theology and articulated personalist theology for the post-Holocaust era. As a historian of medieval Jewish philosophy, Blumenthal was trained to analyze ideas, explicate their meaning, trace their development over time, and understand their significance within the context of Jewish culture. Blumenthals detailed program for the cultivation of prosocial life suggests that the trauma of the Holocaust avoids influencing despair, apathy, or inaction. Prayer is considered as the central framework for Jewish spirituality to encounter God as a person and communicate directly with God. Keywords: constructive theology; David R. Blumenthal; intellectual portrait; Jewish spirituality

Elliot N. Dorff

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, the Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Rector of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, is one of today’s leading Jewish ethicists. In Search of a Good Life presents influential essays by Dorff and explains his contribution to Jewish religious thought in the second half of the 20th century.

Editors’ Introduction to Series

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, the Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Rector of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, is one of today’s leading Jewish ethicists. In Search of a Good Life presents influential essays by Dorff and explains his contribution to Jewish religious thought in the second half of the 20th century.