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Thinking about Good and Evil: Jewish Views from Antiquity to Modernity
2022 Top Five Reference Book from Academy of Parish Clergy
The most comprehensive book on the topic, Thinking about Good and Evil traces the most salient Jewish ideas about why innocent people seem to suffer, why evil individuals seem to prosper, and God’s role in such matters of (in)justice, from antiquity to the present.
Starting with the Bible and Apocrypha, Rabbi Wayne Allen takes us through the Talmud; medieval Jewish philosophers and Jewish mystical sources; the Ba’al Shem Tov and his disciples; early modern thinkers such as Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and Luzzatto; and, finally, modern thinkers such as Cohen, Buber, Kaplan, and Plaskow. Each chapter analyzes individual thinkers’ arguments and synthesizes their collective ideas on the nature of good and evil and questions of justice. Allen also exposes vastly divergent Jewish thinking about the traditionalist (e.g., Ehrenreich), revisionist (e.g., Rubenstein, Jonas), and deflective (e.g., Soloveitchik, Wiesel).
Rabbi Allen’s engaging, accessible volume illuminates well-known, obscure, and novel Jewish solutions to the problem of good and evil.
The most comprehensive book on the topic, Thinking about Good and Evil traces the most salient Jewish ideas about why innocent people seem to suffer, why evil individuals seem to prosper, and God’s role in such matters of (in)justice, from antiquity to the present.
Starting with the Bible and Apocrypha, Rabbi Wayne Allen takes us through the Talmud; medieval Jewish philosophers and Jewish mystical sources; the Ba’al Shem Tov and his disciples; early modern thinkers such as Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and Luzzatto; and, finally, modern thinkers such as Cohen, Buber, Kaplan, and Plaskow. Each chapter analyzes individual thinkers’ arguments and synthesizes their collective ideas on the nature of good and evil and questions of justice. Allen also exposes vastly divergent Jewish thinking about the traditionalist (e.g., Ehrenreich), revisionist (e.g., Rubenstein, Jonas), and deflective (e.g., Soloveitchik, Wiesel).
Rabbi Allen’s engaging, accessible volume illuminates well-known, obscure, and novel Jewish solutions to the problem of good and evil.
432 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 16, 2022
The question of the reality that the world experiences both good and evil has been with us from time immemorial. Theodicies (defenses of God) have been written by philosophers and theologians explaining why evil exists. We're not so concerned about the question of good, but evil, that is the issue we struggle with. That is especially true for those of us who profess some form of faith in divinity.
As a Christian, I have read my share of Christian engagements with the question. I have read a few from other traditions as well, including Jewish perspectives. IN Thinking about Good and Evil, Rabbi Wayne Allen provides a comprehensive look at the question starting with the Genesis and moving forward through time, covering all the major biblical areas, the apocryphal writers, and then moving forward to the present.
He provides a look at thirteen Rabbinic approaches, Medieval writers, including Maimonides. There is a chapter on Kabbah. He engages with the Hasidic masters, discussing how they understood the nature of evil and suffering. From there we move to early modern thinkers such as Spinoza and Mendelssohn. When it comes to Modern thinkers he again covers a wide group of writers including Buber, Hannah Arendt, and others.
The last major section focuses on the Shoah and the way in which Jewish philosophers, theologians, and writers dealt with this most monstrous experience. He speaks of a number of problems encountered when dealing with simply what to call it---the traditional terms including the holocaust, Shoah, and hurban all have their own sets of problems. Then there is the question of exceptionality. How is this experience different from other forms of oppression experienced by Jews. What is perhaps most interesting here is the difference in perspectives. There are traditionalists, some of whom perished in the camps, who defended the traditional view of God's sovereignty. There are the radical revisionists such as Richard Rubenstein who found it necessary to rethink the nature of God and whether God exists. Finally, there are what he calls the Deflectors, those who found it impossible to continue embracing traditional views of God but at the same time not willing to follow the Radicals.
If you are interested in knowing how Jews deal with questions of theodicy, this book covers all the possibilities. Thus, it is a tremendous resource.
As a Christian, I have read my share of Christian engagements with the question. I have read a few from other traditions as well, including Jewish perspectives. IN Thinking about Good and Evil, Rabbi Wayne Allen provides a comprehensive look at the question starting with the Genesis and moving forward through time, covering all the major biblical areas, the apocryphal writers, and then moving forward to the present.
He provides a look at thirteen Rabbinic approaches, Medieval writers, including Maimonides. There is a chapter on Kabbah. He engages with the Hasidic masters, discussing how they understood the nature of evil and suffering. From there we move to early modern thinkers such as Spinoza and Mendelssohn. When it comes to Modern thinkers he again covers a wide group of writers including Buber, Hannah Arendt, and others.
The last major section focuses on the Shoah and the way in which Jewish philosophers, theologians, and writers dealt with this most monstrous experience. He speaks of a number of problems encountered when dealing with simply what to call it---the traditional terms including the holocaust, Shoah, and hurban all have their own sets of problems. Then there is the question of exceptionality. How is this experience different from other forms of oppression experienced by Jews. What is perhaps most interesting here is the difference in perspectives. There are traditionalists, some of whom perished in the camps, who defended the traditional view of God's sovereignty. There are the radical revisionists such as Richard Rubenstein who found it necessary to rethink the nature of God and whether God exists. Finally, there are what he calls the Deflectors, those who found it impossible to continue embracing traditional views of God but at the same time not willing to follow the Radicals.
If you are interested in knowing how Jews deal with questions of theodicy, this book covers all the possibilities. Thus, it is a tremendous resource.
June 4, 2024
Tier List of answers to why evil exists
S - Ecclesiastes (bad things happen to good people, good things to bad)
Arthur Donat (evil shows god doesn’t exist)
A - job / Mordechai Kaplan (it’s random and we can’t explain it)
Hannah Arendt (evil is actually banal, and does not take on existential, terrible meaning)
B - Spinoza (evil is natural)
Harold Kushner (god isn’t strong enough to defeat evil)
C - Kabbalah (Evil exists to show us what good is)
Abraham Joshua Heschel (evil is important to focus on in acts of man, not for god)
D- apocryphal books (evil is a product of demonic forces)
Mendelssohn (evil cannot be fully understood by humans)
E- holocaust apologists (evil exists to improve the moral character of the righteous)
Maimonides (evil is the absence of good, so god doesn’t control it)
F- deteronomy (good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad ppl)
Adam and Eve (evil results from our sin of eating of the tree of knowledge)
S - Ecclesiastes (bad things happen to good people, good things to bad)
Arthur Donat (evil shows god doesn’t exist)
A - job / Mordechai Kaplan (it’s random and we can’t explain it)
Hannah Arendt (evil is actually banal, and does not take on existential, terrible meaning)
B - Spinoza (evil is natural)
Harold Kushner (god isn’t strong enough to defeat evil)
C - Kabbalah (Evil exists to show us what good is)
Abraham Joshua Heschel (evil is important to focus on in acts of man, not for god)
D- apocryphal books (evil is a product of demonic forces)
Mendelssohn (evil cannot be fully understood by humans)
E- holocaust apologists (evil exists to improve the moral character of the righteous)
Maimonides (evil is the absence of good, so god doesn’t control it)
F- deteronomy (good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad ppl)
Adam and Eve (evil results from our sin of eating of the tree of knowledge)
June 4, 2021
Spoiler alert: Rabbi Wayne Allen’s “Thinking about Good and Evil: Jewish Views from Antiquity to Modernity” (The Jewish Publication Society) does not solve the theological problem of good and evil. In fact, Allen notes that’s not even the purpose of his book. Instead, he offers “readers a guided tour through selected important sources in the Jewish tradition that explore good and evil.” That includes critiques on each, noting the difficulties other scholars and philosophers have with every suggestion.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews