Jewish Intellectual History: 16th to 20th Century (The Great Courses 4647) (Audiobook) (Repost)

Professor David B. Ruderman presents Judaism's thoughtful approach to change, challenge, and the modern world. God. Torah. Israel. These three concepts—incorporated in personal belief, the meaning of Jewish ritual acts, and the purpose of continued Jewish existence—have been the focus of Jewish thought throughout history. But the last four centuries have presented Jewish thinkers with difficult challenges: These lectures present the varying ways in which a small group of thinkers has attempted to answer these challenges. These men and, in recent years, women, have reflected deeply on the relevance of Jewish texts and traditions to modern Jews. Though their approaches and solutions differed, most shared a common goal: provide a continuing sense of faith, meaning, and identity for their fellow Jews. Through these lectures, you will observe the time-honored intellectual tradition through which Judaism analyzes, rethinks, and reformulates itself. This process of preserving its essential character while still trying to accommodate itself to the modern world has kept Judaism a vital and vibrant, rather than static, religion. This course may serve to introduce you to a new and rich body of thinkers and thinking, for until recently, Jewish intellectual history, though an integral part of Western intellectual history, has been less heralded. But one of the contributions of the young field of Jewish Studies has been to bring the thinkers featured in this series to a wider audience.