Toward a Negative Theology of Judaism - Hardcover

by Ernest Rubinstein (Author)

This book reimagines Judaism and Jewish identity after the time-honored method of negative theology. It builds on negations that clear space for revisioning of such topics as creation and revelation, the people and State of Israel, history and suffering, ritual and ethics, God and spiritual life. The theology builds on thought from key figures in the history of Jewish philosophy and serves along the way as an introduction to them, including Ecclesiastes, Philo, Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Emil Fackenheim, Emmanuel Levinas, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and more. A key finding is that a shared negation binds God and the Jewish people together: their joint refusal to submit to contentful, constrictive definition.

Author Biography

Ernest Rubinstein is adjunct assistant professor of humanities at New York University's School of Professional Studies. He is author of four previous books, most recently A Liminal Space: Between Judaism and Christianity (2021).