Politics in the Hebrew Bible

God, Man, and Government

Inbunden, Engelska, 2013

779 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

We live in an age when it is not uncommon for politicians to invoke religious doctrine to explain their beliefs and positions on everything from domestic to foreign policy. And yet, many of us would be hard pressed to pinpoint the exact source of these political beliefs in the religious texts that are said to have spawned them. In Politics in the Hebrew Bible: God, Man, and Government, Kalman J. Kaplan and Matthew B. Schwartz offer a genre-straddling examination of the political themes in the Jewish Bible. By studying the political implications of 42 biblical stories (organized into the categories Social Order, Government and Leadership, Domestic Relations, Societal Relations, Morale and Mission, and Foreign Policy), the authors seek to discern a cohesive political viewpoint embodied by the Jewish Bible. Throughout the text, the views put forth in the Jewish Bible are compared to those put forth by Greco-Roman philosophers in order to argue that the Bible offers a worldview that fosters a “high degree of creative individualism within a supportive non-chaotic and well-functioning society”. Kaplan and Schwartz are generous with their explanations of Greco-Roman philosophical concepts in the introductory chapters and with giving background information about the biblical stories engaged in the text.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2013-09-05
Mått160 x 235 x 21 mm
Vikt440 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor218
FörlagJason Aronson Publishers
ISBN9780765709851

Tillhör följande kategorier

Religion: allmänt inom Filosofi och religion
Judiska heliga texter inom Filosofi och religion
Kristendom inom Filosofi och religion
Religion och tro inom Filosofi och religion

Preface Part I: IntroductionChapter 1: Three Organizing PrinciplesPart II: Biblical Stories and their Implications for Political LifeChapter 2: Individuation/Differentiation versus Uniformity/Conformity Chapter 3: Organic Morality versus Abstract EquilibriumChapter 4: Hope versus Fear Regarding the FuturePart III: ConclusionsAppendix A: Chronology for the Biblical EraGlossaryWorks CitedAbout the Authors

Schwartz and Kaplan succeed brilliantly in arguing, in a cogent and readable style, that the often conflicting mentalities regarding man's relationship with his fellow man and with God, found within the bible, do indeed add up to a coherent richly con-textured ethic of engagement with the real world. They further strengthen their position when they extend their scholarly exegesis to contrast, case by case, this biblical tradition with the more abstract, often impersonal, legal formulations emerging from the ancient Near East, from the Greeks and the Romans, as well as from their successor traditions in the modern world. This book is an essential read for those interested in how the bible stakes out an independent enduring ethical and legal tradition that undergirds the ethos of individualism in the modern world.