Past Imperatives

Louis E. Newman is Professor of Religion and Director of the Judaic Studies Program at Carleton College. He is coeditor of Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality.

• Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Ethics and Law 1. Law, Virtue, and Supererogation in the Halakha: The Problem of Lifnim Mishurat Hadin Reconsidered2. Ethics as Law, Law as Religion: Reflections on the Problem of Law and Ethics in Judaism3. Covenant and Contract: A Framework for the Analysis of Jewish Ethics Part II. Ethics and Theology 4. The Quality of Mercy: On the Duty to Forgive in the Judaic Tradition5. Jewish Theology and Bioethics6. Nature and Torah, Creation and Revelation: On the Possibility of a Natural Law in Judaism7. Religious Faith, Historical Relativism, and the Prospects for Modern Jewish Ethics Part III. Methodological Issues in Contemporary Jewish Ethics 8. Woodchoppers and Respirators: The Problem of Interpretation in Contemporary Jewish Ethics9. Text and Tradition in Contemporary Jewish Bioethics10. Talking Ethics with Strangers: A View from Jewish Tradition Conclusion. New Directions in the Study of the Ethics of Judaism Notes References Index

"…Past Imperatives [is] an exciting and profound work." — International Studies in Psychology"This book brings a fresh and broad perspective to a whole range of important topics, which heretofore had been discussed either very dogmatically or within narrow frames of reference. Newman's perspective offers the rare combination of competent study of rabbinic texts with sound philosophical knowledge and method." — Noam Zohar, Bar Ilan University"Past Imperatives will quickly become the most important methodological study of Jewish ethics in English." — David Novak, University of Toronto