Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology

Randi Rashkover is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University. She is author of Freedom and Law: A Jewish-Christian Apologetics, and Revelation and Theopolitics: Barth, Rosenzweig, and the Politics of Praise.Martin Kavka is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Florida State University. He is author of Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy, which was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Philosophy and Jewish Thought in 2008. He has also co-edited four books, including Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology (Indiana University Press, 2014). He is also co-editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics.

"The editors have done their work well and supplied a very faithful summary of the contributor's labours, while the contribuotrs themselves have shown exemplary diligence and intellectual clarity for which this reader is extremely grateful."—The Muslim World Book Review"[Proposes] a new and richly detailed engagement between Judaism and the political.Fall 2014"—Jewish Book World"The collection's sharp and nuanced insights into the role of Judaism (real or imagined) in the discourse of political theology, and its corrective to the ways that in which Judaism has been misrepresented and abused by this important stream of modern thought, are urgent, enlightening, and highly recommended reading."—H-Judaic"Of real pertinence and fills an important gap. The selection of participants has been judiciously made, and they contribute effectively to clarifying the multifaceted problem that unfolds."—Bettina Bergo, Université de Montréal"This collection of essays, which examines political theology from the distinct perspective of Jewish philosophy, could not be timelier or more useful for scholars and students navigating what is often viewed as very dense and difficult material."—Claire Elise Katz, Texas A&M University

• Introduction Randi Rashkover and Martin KavkaPart I. Judaism and Liberalism1. Spinoza and the Possibility Condition of Modern Judaism, Jerome Copulsky2. Plato Prophesied the Revelation: The Philosophico-Political Theology of Strauss'Philosophy and Law and the Guidance of Hermann Cohen, Dana Hollander3. What Do the Dead Deserve?: Towards A Critique of Jewish Political Theology, Martin Kavka4. The Zionism of Hannah Arendt 1941-1948, Eric JacobsonPart II. Messianism, Miracle and Power 5. Power and Israel in Martin Buber's Critique of Carl Schmitt's Political Theology, Gregory Kaplan6. The Political Theology of Ethical Monotheism, Daniel Weidner7. The Miraculous Birth of the Given, Daniel BrandesPart III. Ethics, Law and the Universal 8. Bad Jews, Authentic Jews, Figural Jews, Sarah Hammerschlag9. The Patient Gesture: Law, Liberalism, and Talmud, Zachary BraitermanPart IV. The Mosaic Distinction10. Reason within the Bounds of Religion, Robert Erlewine11. The Impossibility of the Prohibition of Images, Oona Eisenstadt 12.From Distortion to Displacement: Freud and the Mosaic Distinction, Brian Britt 13. Monotheism as a Political Problem, Bruce Rosenstock ContributorsIndex