Jewish Theology Unbound

James A. Diamond is Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on medieval Jewish thought and philosophy. His book Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon (2014) won the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards 2015.

• Introduction: Plotting and Subplotting Jewish Philosophical Theology 1: Unbinding a Jewish Philosophical Theology Out of the Past 2: Biblical Questioning and Divine Astonishment: Philosophy Begins in Anguish 3: Naming an Unnameable God: Divine Being or Divine Becoming 4: Using God's Name for the Mundane: Halakhic Expressions of Becoming 5: The Narrative Hell and Normative Bliss of Biblical Love 6: Biblical Knowing Toward Death: The Silent Sound of Dying for Others 7: The Original Jewish Debate over Religious Martyrdom 8: Angelic Encounters as Metaphysics 9: Freedom or Determinism? Constructs of the Slave as Ciphers for Free Will 10: A God That Ceased to Become, A Nation that May Have Ceased to Exist Conclusion: Looking Beyond Jewish Death toward Rebirth

Whatever one makes of Diamond's approach to theology, his interpretations of texts are powerful and learned. Fair-minded readers of any Jewish denomination or, indeed, of any religion will benefit fromthese novel and compelling approaches to some of the most mysterious and difficult subjects to appear in the Bible-and, as his concluding chapter demonstrates, not only there.