1st Edition
Arguing about Judaism A Rabbi, a Philosopher and a Revealing Debate
Prologue
Introduction: Judaism’s Diversity
PART I: JEWISH BELIEFS
1. God
2. Creation
3. Providence
4. Divine Goodness
5. Revelation
6. Free Will and Sin
7. ‘The Chosen People’
8. Messiah and the Afterlife
PART II: JEWISH PRACTICE
9. Jewish Ethics
10. Worship and Prayer
11. Holidays and Festivals
12. Men and Women
13. Sex and Marriage
14. Contraception, Assisted Conception and Abortion
15. Euthanasia and Suicide
16. Dietary Laws and Animal Welfare
PART III: JEWS AND OTHERS — AND THE WORLD
17. Israel: The Promised Land
18. Israel within: Jews and Gentiles
19. The Diaspora: Jews as citizens outside Israel
20. Antisemitism
21. Anti-Zionism
22. Poverty and Inequality
23. The Environment: Jews as ‘Green’
24. Jews and the Future
Epilogue
Glossary
Further Reading
Endnotes
Index
Biography
Peter Cave is Patron of Humanists UK; he lectures in philosophy for New York University (London) and the Open University, UK.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok is a Reform rabbi and Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales, UK.
‘Arguing About Judaism invites its readers to pull up a chair and join Cohn-Sherbok and Cave in a brilliant critical enquiry into the past, present and future of Judaism's diverse traditions of belief and practice. Their dialogues are not only richly educative, they are also, in an age of increasingly rancorous public debate, a timely master-class in the art of convivial disagreement.’
— Melissa Raphael, University of Gloucestershire, UK
‘Among the many introductions to Judaism, this book stands out as refreshingly unique and challenging. With its conversational tone, the book holds your attention from beginning to end and as such, will be widely appreciated at both an academic and popular level. It is a welcome and long-overdue contribution to the ways we see – or are blind to – the challenges that Judaism faces - both within and without - in today’s troubled world.’
— Martin O'Kane, University of Wales, UK
‘This conversation between a moderately "Progressive" rabbi, and an atheistical humanist philosopher, is a clear and helpful introduction to the varieties of contemporary Jewry. The two conversationalists together manage to disagree without rancour and without misrepresenting each other's position: an excellent achievement in itself!’
— Stephen Clark, University of Liverpool, UK
