Rosenzweig's Bible
Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity

Mara Benjamin argues that Rosenzweig's reinvention of scripture illuminates the complex interactions between modern readers and ancient sacred texts.

Mara H. Benjamin (Author)

9781107663251, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 December 2013

222 pages, 2 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.33 kg

'This work should certainly be read by anyone who is interested in the central role that all things biblical have played in modern theological discussions, and Jewish theology in particular.' AJS Review

Rosenzweig's Bible examines the high stakes, both theological and political, of Franz Rosenzweig's attempt to revivify the Hebrew Bible and use it as the basis for a Jewish textual identity. Mara Benjamin's innovative reading of The Star of Redemption places Rosenzweig's best-known work at the beginning of an intellectual trajectory that culminated in a monumental translation of the Bible, thus overturning fundamental assumptions that have long guided the appraisal of this titan of modern Jewish thought. She argues that Rosenzweig's response to modernity was paradoxical: he challenged his readers to encounter the biblical text as revelation, reinventing scripture – both the Bible itself and the very notion of a scriptural text – in order to invigorate Jewish intellectual and social life, but did so in a distinctly modern key, ultimately reinforcing the foundations of German-Jewish post-Enlightenment liberal thought. Rosenzweig's Bible illuminates the complex interactions that arise when modern readers engage the sacred texts of ancient religious traditions.

Introduction: the decline and renewal of scripture
1. Scripture in the star of redemption
2. Yehudah Halevi: the creation of a scriptural world
3. Bible translation and the shaping of German identity
4. Toward a new encounter with the Bible
Conclusion: scripture today: some considerations.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Philosophy [HP]