A collection of essays that illustrate the issue of definition and the role of context in the study of a religion, its text and its ideas. The author first addresses an important text in the canon of Judaism in its formative age. He then places the text in its context; that is, he tries to find the question that the text answers. The author concludes by offering a general theory of the history of Judaism so that Judaisms and their histories can be included in the larger history of religion. Co-published with Studies in Judaism.
