Description: An intriguing consideration of the validity of traditional notions of divine revelation and authoritative interpretation in today's world.
Brief description:
Norman Solomon retired in 2001 from the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, where he was Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought. He remains a member of Wolfson College, Oxford, and of the Oxford University Unit for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He was previously Director of the Centre for the Study of Judaism and Jewish/Christian Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham.
Dr Solomon was born in Cardiff, and educated there and at St John's College, Cambridge. He has been rabbi to Orthodox Congregations in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham. He is a Past President of the British Association for Jewish Studies, Vice President of the World Congress of Faiths, and a Patron of the International Interfaith Centre. He has participated in Interfaith Dialogue in over twenty countries on five continents; in 2004 he was Scholar in Residence at Mandelbaum House, University of Sydney. Awards he has received include the Sir Sigmund Sternberg CCJ Award in Christian-Jewish Relations (1993) and the Distinguished Service Medal of the University of San Francisco (2000).
His publications include Judaism and World Religion (1991), The Analytic Movement: Hayyim Soloveitchik and his School (1993), A Very Short Introduction to Judaism (1996), Historical Dictionary of Judaism (1998), and The Talmud: A Selection (2009), as well as numerous articles and reviews. From 1985-91 he was Editor of the quarterly Christian Jewish Relations.
Review Quotes:
'A scholarly book, it is not written in a difficult style. And for a hardback of this print quality, it is a bargain. On one level, it is an invaluable source book on what he calls the "central doctrine" of Judaism.' Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle