Belief in the coming of a Messiah poses a genuine dilemma. From a Jewish perspective, the historical record is overwhelmingly against it. If despite all the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people no legitimate Messiah has come forward, has the belief not been shown to be groundless? Yet for all the problems associated with messianism, the historical record also shows it is an idea with enormous staying power. The prayer book mentions it on page after page. The great Jewish philosophers all wrote about it. Secular thinkers in the twentieth century returned to it and reformulated it. And victims of the Holocaust invoked it in the last few minutes of their life. This book examines the staying power of messianism and analyzes it in a way that retains its redemptive force without succumbing to mythology.

Product Description: Although it is customary to view Judaism as a legalistic faith leaving little room for free thought or individual expression, Kenneth Seeskin argues that this view is wrong. Looking at classic texts from Biblical, Rabbinic, and philosophical literature, Seeskin shows that Judaism has always respected freedom of conscience and assigned an important role to the power of human reason...read more

Product Description: Although Maimonides' discussion of creation is one of his greatest contributions - he himself claims that belief in creation is second in importance only to belief in God - there is still considerable debate on what that contribution was...read more

Product Description: Monotheism is usually considered Judaism's greatest contribution to world culture, but it is far from clear what monotheism is. This work examines the notion that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God as a claim about the nature of God...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Idolatry is not just the worship of idols and clay figures. While the nature of the temptation has changed over the years, idolatry is as much a threat today as it was in our ancestors' time. Today, we face the lures of a material society...read more

Product Description: Book by Kenneth Seeskin (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Clearly written, historically sophisticated, Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age presents a running dialogue between a rationalist understanding of religion and its many critics, ranging from Descartes and Hume to Kierkegaard, Buber, and Fackenheim...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This book examines the Socratic method of elenchus or refutation. Refutation by its very nature is a conflict which in the hands of Plato becomes high drama. The continuing conversation in which it occurs is more a test of character than of intellect...read more