What kinds of ideas were the authors of the Hebrew Scriptures, Talmud and Midrash concerned to advance to their readers? Certainly, these texts have been put to various uses in the history of ideas. But are there ideas that actually originate with the Hebrew Bible and other classical Jewish texts, so that we can speak of the “ideas of the Bible” in the same way we can speak of “Plato’s ideas” or “Nietzsche’s thought”? And if there are biblical ideas, are any of them of genuine philosophical significance, ad
In the last generation, there has been a gradual but steady movement in a number of academic disciplines in the direction of thinking that the classical Jewish sources can in fact be read for their philosophical teachings. The “Jewish Philosophical Theology” project aims to bolster this trend by placing resources of different kinds at the disposal of scholars and students from different backgrounds interested in working on the philosophical investigation of the classical Jewish sources.
“Jewish Philosophical Theology” is a project of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and is directed by the Institute’s president, Shalem Center co-founder Yoram Hazony.