2017-2018 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2017-2018 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 370 - Modern Jewish Thought


This course explores the intellectual impact of modernity on Jewish ideas about God and peoplehood. Through a rigorous analysis of primary sources in philosophy, political theory, theology and ethics, we will explore how Jewish thinkers transformed the meaning of Jewish experience and self-expression in light of cataclysmic historical changes such as the coming of print culture and the scientific revolution, the rise of the modern democratic state, the spread of capitalism and the explosion of radical ideologies. The principal focus of the course will be on the roots of the contemporary tension between the conception of Judaism as a religion that entails personal commitment and the contrary claim that Jews collectively constitute a national community. Authors covered will include Baruch Spinoza, Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Hermann Cohen, Joseph Soloveitchik and Theodor Herzl.

 

Anticipated Terms Offered: N/A