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book: Another Modernity
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Another Modernity

Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish Universalism
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2020

About this book

Another Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel.

What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.

Author / Editor information

Clémence Boulouque is the Carl and Bernice Witten Assistant Professor in Jewish and Israel studies at Columbia University.

Reviews

"Boulouque['s] work gives a detailed description of Benamozegh['s] character and analyzes various aspects of his thought, from political to kabbalistic, with a very rich bibliography... The book is written smoothly, and succeeds to give a complete vision of Benamozegh's thought, analyzing different perspectives, but above all gives a vast overview of what modernity is and how Benamozegh dealt with it, in a different way from classical models."—Andrea Yaakov Lattes, Sephardic Horizons --- "Clémence Boulouque brilliantly succeeds in elucidating previously neglected aspects of the work of a rabbi and philosopher who lived at the crossroads of irreconcilable worlds, yet provided a broad and consistent version of Judaism that was at once traditional and modern. This intelligent, well-informed, well-written book is an important step towards comprehending the multi-faceted thought of Elia Benamozegh."—Alessandro Guetta, INALCO, Paris --- "Another Modernity offers a brilliant portrait of Elia Benamozegh, a fascinating and largely hidden gem of modern Jewish thought. Clémence Boulouque deftly captures the Italian rabbi's singular approach to mysticism, universalism, and the role of Judaism in the modern world; she is the ideal scholar to bring Benamozegh out of an undeserved obscurity."—Jessica Maya Marglin, University of Southern California

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    CONTENTS

    vii
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    Acknowledgments

    ix
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    Abbreviations

    xiii
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    Introduction

    1
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  • PART 1. BENAMOZEGH’S TEXTS AND CONTEXTS Morocco, the Risorgimento, and the Disputed Manuscript
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    1. The Moroccan World of a Livornese Jew

    15
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    2. An Italian Jewish Patriot in the Risorgimento

    27
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    3. The Banned Author and the Oriental Publisher

    37
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    4. Expanding His Readership: Benamozegh’s Turn to French

    46
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    5. The Afterlives of a Manuscript

    53
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  • PART II. UNIVERSALISM AS AN INDEX OF JEWISH MODERNITY
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    6. Situating Benamozegh in the Debate on Jewish Universalism

    63
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    7. Normativity and Inclusivity in Modernity: The Role and Limits of the Noahide Laws

    83
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    8. Cosmopolitanism and Universalism: The Political Value of Judaism in an Age of Nations

    93
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    9. Universalism in Particularism: Benamozegh’s Legacies, between Levinas and Religious Zionism

    102
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  • Part III. Beyond Binaries: Kabbalah as a Tool for Modernity
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    10. Kabbalah: Reason and the Power of Myth

    109
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    11. Beyond Dualism: Kabbalah and the Coincidence of Opposites

    122
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    12. Kabbalah as Politics

    133
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  • Part IV. Past Enmity: Modes of Interreligious Engagement and Jewish Self-Affirmation
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    13. Religious Enmity and Tolerance Reconsidered

    151
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    14. “The Iron Crucible” and Loci of Religious Contact

    162
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    15. Self-Assertion and a Jewish Theology of Religions

    173
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    16. Modes of Interreligious Engagement: From Theory to Social Practices

    183
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    Epilogue

    193
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    Notes

    197
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    Bibliography

    261
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    Index

    295
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 12, 2020
eBook ISBN:
9781503613119
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
328
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503613119
eBook ISBN: 9781503613119
Keywords for this book
modernity; Kabbalah; interreligious dialogue; universalism; ethnocentrism; Italian Judaism; Moroccan Judaism; Noahide Laws.; Orientalism; religious Zionism
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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