Messianism in Medieval Jewish Thought

Dov Schwartz, a former Dean of Humanities at Bar Ilan University and head of the departments of Philosophy and of Music, currently heads its interdisciplinary unit, and holds the Natalie and Isidore Friedman Chair for Teaching Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Thought.

“Dov Schwartz is undeniably one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, and profound scholars of medieval Jewish philosophy and modern Jewish thought active today. In 1997 he published in Hebrew a ground-breaking study on the history of an idea: messianism among medieval Jewish theologians. That work remains unsurpassed today and its appearance in English, in an elegant translation by Batya Stein, is greatly to be welcomed. No one before Schwartz, and no one since, has sought to follow the permutations of the messianic idea (as Gershom Scholem famously called it) from R. Sa’adia Gaon through Don Isaac Abravanel. Given the salience of messianism in contemporary Judaism, be it in Habad circles or among (Orthodox) religious Zionists (about whom Schwartz has also written several influential works), this important study proves itself to be of great contemporary relevance.”

• Preface Chapter One: Methodological Introduction Chapter Two: Apocalyptic Messianism in a Rationalist Garb Chapter Three: Individual Redemption and Naturalism Chapter Four: The Resurgence of Apocalyptic Messianism Chapter Five: The Decline of Collective Naturalism Chapter Six: Between Naturalism and Apocalyptic Messianism Chapter Seven: Clarifying Positions: The Last Stage Chapter Eight: Conclusions: Redemption, Models, and Decisions Appendix: History, Ideas, and the History of Ideas Bibliography Index