REL332.001
Contemporary Jewish Thought

Martin Buber

Professor
Dr. Steven Jacobs
sjacobs@bama.ua.edu

Office: 201 Manly Hall
Office Phone: 348-0473
Course number: 48449
Course: TR 12:30-1:45
Location: 210 Manly Hall

About Online Readings

Some course readings are placed in a "secure" folder; you can only access these PDF files (Portable Document Format, that can be opened with the free Adobe Reader) by clicking each link and then entering your Bama User Name and Password. If you have difficulty accessing these readings, contact the instructor by email.

If you have forgotten your Bama ID, but know your Campus Wide ID (CWID), then go here.

Description

Examination and analysis of modern Jewish reformulations of divinity, revelation, redemption, election, etcl, in critical contrast to classical Jewish and Greek traditions. This semester we will look at the two most significant foundational thinkers in Jewish thought: Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza.

Fall 2009 Syllabus (PDF)

Assignments (PDF)

Books (required)

Seidler, Victor
Jewish Philosophy and Western Culture: A Modern Introduction
London & NY: I.B.Tauris, 2008
ISBN: 1845112814

Kraemer, Joel L.
Maimonides: The Life and World of One of civilization's Greatest Minds
NY: Doubleday, 2008
ISBN: 038551199X

Kraemer, Joel L.
Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies
Littman Libr of Jewish Civilization, 2007
ISBN: 1874774269

Nadler, Steven
Spinoza: A Life
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 2001
ISBN: 0521002931

Garrett, Don, ed
The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press, 1995
ISBN: 0521398657

Readings

Readings 1 (PDF)

Readings 2 (PDF)

Jacobs, Chapter 4 (PDF)

Jacobs, Chapter 5 (PDF)

God on the Quad (PDF)

"The Return of the Native" (PDF)