Edited by Samuel J. Kessler & George Y. Kohler

The Jewish Publication Society & University of Nebraska Press (Dec. 2023)

Summary

Much of what is known about modern Jewish theology in the Anglophone world comes from the works of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Buber. In additional, a smaller contingent of readers (mainly within the Modern Orthodox community) is familiar with the ideas of Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Isaac Kook. Fewer, however, across and beyond all of the denominations, will own books by Mordechai Kaplan, Yitz Greenberg, or Hermann Cohen. And almost no one will know the names of Ludwig Philippson, David Einhorn, or Sigmund Maybaum. 

Yet before Heschel, Buber and the others were born, the world of Jewish theological writing in the modern period was already immensely wide and deep, encompassing thinkers from across the religious and philosophical spectrum, all of whom were integral to the creation of modern Jewish thought (liberal and conservative) as recognized by Jews today. Our proposed volume brings together texts from Central Europe and the United States for the “JPS Anthologies of Jewish Thought” series under the title Modern Jewish Theology: The First One Hundred Years, 1835-1935. It is our belief that a series which currently includes anthologies devoted to the founding texts of the modern movements (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox), as well as to Jewish mysticism (and its neo-instantiations), should likewise have a volume focused specifically on modern Jewish theology. 

As we define it, “Modern Jewish Theology” developed over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in concert with broader trends in Jewish intellectual and social modernization, from those in scholarship (Wissenschaft des Judentums), to politics (Zionism), to religious practice (the formation of movement Judaism). This anthology is meant to reintroduce “Jewish theology” into the purview and parlance of contemporary Jewish readers – lay-readers and scholars alike. Too often, one encounters the idea that Judaism either has no theology or that theology itself is a concept imported from Christianity. Whether insisting that Judaism has no theology or theology is an intruder, Jews today find themselves in a quagmire, with no room in their narrative of the past for a theology that does adopt methods and ideas from the non-Jewish world but is not an aberration in the historical development of Jewish ideas. 

The intended readership for this volume is therefore quite broad. University and rabbinical teachers and students, practicing rabbis, educators, and lay-persons of all stripes are all equally confronted with the challenge of understanding – let alone explaining – the developments and strands of modern Jewish theology. Here, for the first time, will be a sourcebook that crosses denominational boundaries, and presents a narrative of continual dialogue and robust innovation within a distinct intellectual discipline called “Jewish Theology” during its first one hundred years. 

The volume begins with a historical and theoretical introduction, addressing the context of the sources, the errors within the received narrative of Jewish modernity which mostly neglects its theological developments, and the need for a renewed understanding of the tradition of Jewish theological writing as it occurred between 1835 and 1935. The anthology is then divided into three parts, “The Nineteenth-Century,” “The Early Twentieth-Century,” and “Weimar and Beyond,” each of which receives its own introduction, as well as is subdivide into thematic sections. All the texts are introduced, including with biographical and bibliographical data, and have a brief summary of their content. The volume concludes with an essay by Dr. Steven Kepnes (Colgate), a noted scholar of Jewish theology, expressing his hope for a rejuvenated and reinvigorated conversation about Jewish theology in Jewish personal and communal life.