Description:
Clearly written, historically sophisticated, Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age presents a running dialogue between a rationalist understanding of religion and its many critics, ranging from Descartes and Hume to Kierkegaard, Buber, and Fackenheim. The author confronts such classical problems as divine attributes, creation, revelation, suspension of the ethical, ethics and secular philosophy, the problem of evil, and the importance of the Holocaust. On each issue, the author sets the terms of the debate and works toward a constructive resolution.
Brief description: Kenneth Seeskin is Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. His books include Dialogue and Discovery: A Study in Socratic Method, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"It addresses central questions in classic and current Jewish religious thought--analyzes them in an obviously erudite, unpretentious, even elegant manner, solidly derived from the classic texts of general and religious literature--and thus produces a constructive 'relevant' philosophical theology that is very likely to be of concern not only to Jewish thinkers but, as a paradigm, to any thoughtful person." -- Steven S. Schwarzchild, Washington University