Prayer After the Death of God

Avi Sagi is Professor of Philosophy and founder of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies at Bar-Ilan University as well as a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He has written and edited many books and articles in philosophy and Jewish thought, among them Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd, Jewish Religion after Theology, and Tradition vs. Traditionalism.

"For Avi Sagi, professor of philosophy at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, the death of God is far more complex than has been previously imagined, especially when viewed in light of the tenacity of prayer in human existence. ... The heart of the book, however, is its exploration and affirmation of prayer without divine matrix, object, or addressee. Sagi is most original as he contends with more traditional explanations of the source and meaning of prayer ... His entire study is informed by a rare and promising dialogue between continental philosophy and critical appreciation for the relevance of Talmudic wisdom. Originally published in Hebrew, Sagi's study represents a unique contribution to the historiography of the death of God and a welcome alternative to the all-too-predictable literature on prayer."

• Introduction Chapter 1: Prayer and Hebrew Literature Chapter 2: “The Death of God” and the Possibility of Prayer Chapter 3: Prayer as a Primary Datum Chapter 4: Between Self-Reflection and Ontological Event Chapter 5: Grappling with the Addressee Problem Chapter 6: Reconstructing the “Death of God” Moment Chapter 7: Humans as Praying Beings: A Phenomenological Profile Bibliography Index