Contemporary Jewish philosophies
New forms of Jewish philosophic inquiry in response to the Holocaust, the American Jewish experience, and the establishment of the State of Israel, present a necessity for a clear and comprehensive framework in which contemporary Jewish thought may be studied. This is what William E. Kaufman has done in "Contemporary Jewish Philosophies". Examining the present parameters of Jewish thought – Existentialism, naturalism, supernaturalism, and transnaturalism – he formulates the criteria for dealing with modern Jewish thinking. He traces the effects of this new philosophic vocabulary through the writings of such established luminaries as Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, and Mordecai Kaplan as well as seeking the sources of the thought of such contemporary figures as Emil Fackenheim, Jacob Agus, Arthur Cohen, Eugene Borowitz, Richard Rubenstein, and Abraham Joshua Heschel in the traditional roots of covenant, salvation, and transcendence. Dr. Kaufman deals in depth with the age-old questions: What conception of God can I accept? What is the relation of God to the universe? How shall we concieve the relation of man to God? But he goes further still. What is salvation in light of the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel? Can we find an analogue in the past to the situation of Jews today? Probing these questions, along with the primary concerns of Jewish philosophy, he illumines and enlivens the complex dialogues which from the basis of Jewish philosophic thought. Each philosopher is analyzed and critiqued, utilizing a a uniform criteria which focuses the key concerns and commentaries of each in relation to the entire realm of Jewish thought today. "Contemporary Jewish Philosophies" in essential not only to the student of philosophy but to the reader who is seriously concerned with confronting today's problems with today's sensibility. --
