Religiöse Positionierungen in Judentum, Christentum und Islam

What should one know in order to position oneself vis-à-vis other religions and confessions? What is religious knowledge and how should it be taught? This volume sheds light on educational media in Judaism and Christianity such as catechisms, children’s bibles, and sermons as well as Jewish and Protestant teacher training in 19th-century Germany and explores the methodological potentials of educational media as a source for (inter-)religious history. It reflects on broader processes of knowledge production and the impact of science and scholarship on religious edu-cation and knowledge production within Christian and Jewish contexts. The volume draws on an interdisciplinary conference that took place in 2018 and brought together scholars associated with two transdisciplinary research projects: The German-Israeli research group “Innovation through Tradition? Jewish Educational Media and Cultural Transformation in the Face of Moder-nity”, associated with the German Historical Institute Washington and Tel Aviv University (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG, 2014–2019), and the LOEWE research hub “Religious Positioning: Modalities and Constellations in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Contexts” at Goethe University Frankfurt and Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art, 2015–2021).

The study focuses on the transfer of knowledge and culture as well as the mutual networks between representatives of the German-language science of Judaism and a polyphonic Italian-Jewish group of scholars in the period between 1820 and 1870. It emphasizes the specific characteristics of the small Italian-speaking group of scholars in tension with the science of Judaism in the German context.

This volume is the first to compare the biographies and work genesis of the Protestant pastor and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) and the Jewish religious philosopher and activist Abraham J. Heschel (1907-1972). The author shows how both drew their heavily relational thinking from the (Hebrew) bible and personal piety, and reconcile it with rational thinking, which ultimately led them to engage in prophetic practical activism.

The Aqedah, i.e., the story of the 'binding' of Isaac by Abraham, is a core text in all three Abrahamic religions and has been widely discussed in Judaism, Christianity and Islam for centuries. It still represents an intellectual, moral, and spiritual challenge for anyone who claims to be able to link morality and faith in God in a reasonably comprehensible way. The contributions in this anthology address this challenge from philosophical, theological and literary perspectives, by considering exemplary problems, epochs and authors pertaining to all three Abrahamic religions. The first part contains seven contributions exploring the epistemic and/or philosophical dimensions of the Aqedah. The second part contains nine essays on the (history of the) interpretation of the Aqedah from Israelite/Jewish, Christian and Islamic perspectives. The three texts in the third and final part discuss narratological issues and reflections of the problem within modern Hebrew literature. The volume complements and expands the existing scholarship on the subject, above all through its consistently interreligious approach and the inclusion of current philosophical and literary sources and debates.

Shenhav examines Gershom Scholem’s early writings on the question of language (1916–1928) and develops a new methodology for reading the texts of modern Jewish thinking in relation to gender questions. Scholem combines philosophical questions with discussions of Hebrew writing and language. The book confronts his theses with Biblical texts and traditional commentaries, providing a contemporary, inclusive interpretation.

Roman traveler and humanist Pietro Della Valle spent the years 1617–22 in Safavid Iran. At the court of Šāh Abbās I, he advocated for political alliances against the Ottomans and the establishment of a Catholic center (Nuova Roma di Oriente). He wrote a polemic in Persian responding to contentious interreligious debates, presented here in translation accompanied by a commentary as a source that can be used to analyze Catholic-Shiite positionings.

This volume brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to explore the intersections between crisis, scholarship, and action. The aim of this book is to think about the “moment of crisis,” through the concepts, writings, and methodologies awarded to us by Jewish thinkers in modernity. This book offers a broad gallery of accounts on the notion of crisis in Jewish modernity while emphasizing three terms: interpretation, heresy, and messianism. The main thesis of the volume is that the diasporic and exilic experience of the Jewish people turned their philosophers and theologians into “experts in crisis management” who had to find resources within their own religion, culture and traditions in order to react, endure and overcome short- and long-term historical crises. The underlining assumption of this book is therefore that Jewish thought obtains resources for conceptualizing and reacting to the current forms of crisis in the global, European, and Israeli spheres. The volume addresses a large readership in humanities, social and political sciences and religious studies, taking as its assumption that scholars in modern Jewish thought have an extended responsibility to engage in contemporary debates.