Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought

Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

• List of Abbreviations PrefaceR. Baine Harris Editor's Introduction: Thematizing a TraditionL. E. Goodman Philo's Conception of the Divine NatureDavid Winston Solomon Ibn Gabirol's Doctrine of Intelligible MatterJohn M. Dillon Parallel Structures in the Metaphysics of Iamblichus and Ibn GabirolC. K. Mathis II Ibn Gabirol: The Sage among the SchoolmenBernard McGinn From What is One and Simple only What is One and Simple Can Come to BeArthur Hyman Maimonides and Neoplatonism: Challenge and ResponseAlfred L. Ivry Maimonidean NaturalismL. E. Goodman The Virtue of FaithMenachem Kellner Why Not Pursue the Metaphor of Artisan and View God's Knowledge as Practical?David B. Burrell, C.S.C. Matter as Creature and Matter as the Source of Evil: Maimonides and AquinasIdit Dobbs-Weinstein Divine Unity in Maimonides, the Tosafists and Me'iriJ. David Bleich Platonic Themes in Gersonides' Doctrine of the Active IntellectSeymour Feldman Utterance and Ineffability in Jewish NeoplatonismSteven T. Katz Self-Contraction of the Godhead in Kabbalistic TheologyDavid Novak Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and RenaissanceMoshe Idel Love and Intellect in Leone Ebrea: The Joys and Pains of Human PassionHubert Dethier Spinoza, Neoplatonic Kabbalist?Richard Popkin The Psychodynamics of Neoplatonic OntologyRobert B. McLaren Bibliography The Contributors Index

The authors include David Winston, John Dillon, Carl Mathis, Bernard McGinn, Arthur Hyman, Alfred Ivry, Lenn E. Goodman, Menachem Kellner, David Burrell, Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, David Bleich, Seymour Feldman, Steven Katz, Moshe Idel, David Novak, Hubert Dethier, Richard Popkin, and Robert McLaren. Taken together, these essays offer an impressive historical survey of the ideas, achievements, and philosophic struggles of a group of men who worked to form a unique and durable tradition that bridged the gap between rival confessions and sects-mystics, rationalists, and empiricists; Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This is a philosophic source whose vitality is not yet exhausted.