Perfect Goodness and the God of the Jews

This volume addresses the challenges that contemporary developments in morality and ethics pose to the idea of God as a “perfectly good being”: the ideological critique of God on moral grounds, and the classic argument that no perfectly good being exists.

“The attractive thing about this book is its intellectual humility: the author suggests, he does not insist. For anyone interested in Jewish ideas about God, it will prove a stimulating… read.”

— John Barton, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

“In this third book in his series on Jewish theology in the modern age, Gellman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Ben-Gurion University, continues the adaptations of traditional Jewish responses to the questions surrounding Jewish theology. This book deals with the issue of whether God can be fully ‘good’ given the objections to Biblical texts which portray actions by God that are today held to be immoral. … This book is highly recommended mainly for academic libraries with collections that seek to collect books on Jewish theology, philosophy and ethics.”

—Eli Lieberman, Assistant Librarian, Hebrew Union College, AJL Reviews

“This book is a brilliant sequel to Gellman’s previous works which theologically recalibrated fundamentals of Judaism for the modern age. Employing his formidable knowledge of rabbinic, philosophical, Hasidic, and kabbalistic texts, he now sets out to do the same with the notion of God as a ‘perfectly good being.’ In a time when there is a dearth of credible defenses to stem the tide of assaults on this God, Gellman’s innovative approach offers all people of faith, not just Jews, a credible theology to comfortably preserve their beliefs alongside central tenets of Western morality.” —Jim Diamond, Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo, author of Jewish Theology Unbound

“Yehuda Gellman has written one of the most important contributions to Jewish theology yet to appear in the 21st century. With courage and analytic rigor, in his three books published by Academic Studies Press Gellman looks for ‘wiggle-room’ in traditional accounts of election, of history, and now in this book, of morality, which allow him to present a Jewish theology which is both traditional in its essence while showing respect for science, history, and contemporary moral values. Traditionalist Judaism is in crisis. Gellman refuses to abandon his community, but also refuses to deny the crisis. Gellman succeeds brilliantly in defending his own religious stance (deeply indebted to Hasidism) while showing respect for other cultures and religions. He does this without becoming a cultural or theological relativist.” —Menachem Kellner, Chair of Philosophy and Jewish Thought, Shalem College