"Where is His Glorious Presence?" A Contemporary Constructive (Un)Systematic Jewish Theology - Einzelansicht

"Where is His Glorious Presence?" A Contemporary Constructive (Un)Systematic Jewish Theolog

In this course we shall ask questions about the contemporary meaning and significance of religious language in the Jewish religious tradition. While keeping our eye on the present horizon, the focus will be on reading and interpreting texts from the history of Jewish theology, starting with the Bible and leading up to the twentieth century. So, while “constructive” points to the emphasis on the hermeneutic perspective of our own times, most of the resources will not necessarily drawn from today (e.g., none of the usual suspects – Buber, Rosenzweig or Soloveitchik). Here I take rather a historicist standpoint, preferring to deal mainly with texts which have not already been re-interpreted and filtered by a contemporary sensibility. The red thread of our texts is provided by the focus on “Torah” as a text, concept, praxis, symbol, metaphor, and myth. Our intensive reading of primary sources (and some secondary literature) is based om extensive selections of texts from Midrash, Maimonides, Hasidism and Modern Hebrew Literature, which will be made available in Hebrew and English.

A basic goal in this course is to learn about the great variety of models and concepts of Torah in the Jewish religious tradition. To better understanding the phenomenon, the student will be introduced to some theological and philosophical interpretive approaches. As an exercise in reflective practice, the student will have to interpret existing texts and formulate responses based on contemporary hermeneutical perspectives.