Bøker av Professor of Religion Jacob Neusner

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his AB from Harvard College in 1953, his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and rabbinical ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his AB from Harvard College in 1953, his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and rabbinical ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his AB from Harvard College in 1953, his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and rabbinical ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

An eminent scholar of the history of Judaism, Jacob Neusner shows in this work how Judaism changed from a philosophy to a religion between 200 and 400 C.E. ''The Transformation of Judaism'' is a work both revolutionary in its method and unprecedented in its results. Comparing earlier and later sets of Judaic writings, Neusner sets forth how philosophy - abstract, elegant, orderly, and intellectual - turned into religion - tangible, down-to-earth, chaotic, and concrete. In the process, he offers an account of the birth of Judaism that has become normative. Moreover, Neusner''s methodology can be applied to the study of religions other than Judaism because it examines the underpinnings of how a society sees the world (philosophy), orders itself (politics), and sustains itself (economics).

Here is a superb resource for all who wish to deepen their understanding of Judaism and Christianity and the relationship between these two great traditions. The authors compare and contrast the paramount theological categories of Judaism and Christianity, specifically Torah, God, and Israel for Judaism, and Bible, God, and church for Christianity.''Revelation'' is the first of three volumes in support of this effort. It consists of a conversation between the Torah and its authoritative representation in the Talmud of Babylonia (a complete and exhaustive statement of God''s will for Judaism) and the Christian Bible (Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament), including the interpretation of scripture within the primitive church as the foundation of Christian authority.Within this conversation the authors do not sidestep profound disagreement in favor of proposing obscure theological difference. Each believes in his tradition and its affirmations, and each seeks to grasp the rationality of the views of the other.

A leading scholar of the formative age and writings of Judaism here formulates a theory of the Mishnah (one of the earliest dated sources of Judaism): what it is, how it should be read, and why it is of considerable interest in the study of religious conceptions of the social order. Each of the book''s chapters are amply illustrated with texts that have been freshly translated by the author.The result is a relatively quick and easy entry into the sometimes difficult and complex world of the Mishnah and its laws concerning agriculture, appointed seasons, women and property, civil and criminal law, conduct of the cult and the Temple, and preservation of cultic purity in the Temple and under certain domestic circumstances, with special reference to the table and the bed.Any valid description of early rabbinic thought - and therefore of early Christianity - must begin with the Mishnah and must focus on the subjects the sages considered important. This book introduces the reader to the world of the Mishnah in a thoughtful, engaging, and spirited manner.

The authors address the issue of God in this world which, in the classical documents of formative Judaism, encompasses the diverse ways in which we meet God in the here and now. The counterpart in Christianity is meeting God in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. As heirs to the common scripture of ancient Israel, both Judaism and Christianity identify humanity as the worldly image of God. The two traditions concur that, since we are made in God''s image, we see God in the face of one another. The conception of incarnation is therefore as Judaic as it is Christian. The point of difference between the two becomes clear when we ask how incarnation is realized.This book is the final volume in a trilogy. Previously published volumes include ''Revelation: The Torah and the Bible'' and ''The Body of Faith: Israel and the Church''.

The character of any religion as it is lived and practiced can be quite different from the prescriptions and ideals of its traditions and rituals. This bifurcation can be found also in the tension between the ideas people hold and the things they do. Jacob Neusner explains in the preface:The issue I address in these pages for a broad audience of people who care about religion in general, not Judaism in particular, is an urgent one: explaining what we see, not only what we read. So I decided to focus the book more sharply on what strikes me as Judaism''s most suggestive trait - the fairly broadly diffused knowledge of what matters and what doesn''t.Students, general readers, members of the clergy, and teachers will find here a lucid and compelling account of the actual life of Jewish people - in the synagogue, at home, in ritual - and of commonly held attitudes toward Holocaust and redemption, the Sabbath and festivals, study of the Torah, the State of Israel, and more.

The Mishnah is the first canonical writing of Judaism after the Hebrew Scriptures of ancient Israel (the Old Testament) and the foundation of the two Talmuds and of all Judaism thereafter. According to eminent religion scholar Jacob Neusner, the key to understanding the Mishnah is to read it as philosophy, in accord with the generally accepted understanding of philosophy in its time and place. In ''Judaism as Philosophy'', Neusner studies a large sample of evidence, meticulously translated and carefully explained, and identifies the philosophical side of the Mishnah''s system, method, and message alike.The philosophical tradition in which the Mishnah takes its place, Neusner explains, utilizes the Aristotelian method of hierarchical classification to demonstrate the proposition (important to Middle Platonism and profoundly expressed by Plotinus) that many things really form a single thing: many species, a single genus; many genera, an encompassing, well-crafted and cogent whole. Through the systematic and orderly hierarchical classification of the things of nature, the framers of the Mishnah illustrate the ultimate unity of all being emanating from the One on high. Arguing that the document''s writers chose a legal form for a philosophical proposition, this book completely changes a centuries-old way of reading the Mishnah. Judaism emerges as a sustained demonstration of the unity of all being under one God.

These essays examine the sociology of Judaism in the last decades of the Second Jewish Commonwealth. The author discerns two kinds of religious fellowship, one constituted by the 'haber' (translated 'fellow'), based on observance of certain religious laws, and the other by the 'talmid hakham' (translated 'sage'), based on concern for study and application of the Torah. He contrasts the former with the contemporary community at Qumran, and shows the difference between the 'haburah' and the Dead Sea commune to have been based in some measure on a different attitude towards society. The final chapter presents an analysis of Jewish religious fellowship today, and offers some concrete suggestions for recovering a more vital social religious life with the aid of the lessons of the ancient fellowships.

Here is a sustained criticism of the rather facile use of rabbinic literature by New Testament scholarship. In particular, Neusner addresses the writings of Helmut Koester, Samuel Sandmel, Reginald Fuller, Harvey Falk, Geza Vermes, E.P. Sanders, S.J.D. Cohen, Morton Smith, John P. Meier, and Brad H. Young.The book begins with a study of the characteristics of rabbinic literature and a demonstration of why this literature cannot be easily used for the kind of history New Testament scholarship proposes to produce. Then follow critiques of the writings by various New Testament scholars and the differences between Professor Neusner and his critics. A concluding section pays tribute to the New Testament field for all it has taught the author.

Orthodox Judaism as it has been known through the medieval and modern world covers the period from approximately 100 B.C.E to 640 C.E. It was during this period that the Babylonian Talmud came to prominence through the efforts of the Babylonian rabbinic schools. The Talmud continues to govern the life of traditional Jewry, orthodox and conservative, throughout the world and to provide important guidance for reform Jews as well. Because of the Talmud''s continuing influence, an understanding of this period is crucial to any understanding of present-day Judaism. Dr. Neusner centers his study on three key words applied to rabbinic Judaism: power - the way in which one man caused another to do his will; myth - the stories people told and the beliefs they held to account for and justify the power-relationships they experienced; and function - how things worked. This important book deals with complex materials in a clear, nontechnical manner that will prove useful to those persons who are not familiar with Hebraic studies.Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph.D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph.D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph.D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

In this provocative follow-up to his enormously influential '' A Rabbi Talks with Jesus'', Jacob Neusner challenges the apostle Paul to debate the true meaning and significance of Judaism. Drawing new boundaries for Jewish-Christian dialogue, Neusner contends that Paul''s misinterpretation of Judaism - a misinterpretation perpetuated today by many Christians and Jews - has resulted in the widespread perception of Judaism as ethnic and particular, and Christianity as universal. Yet as Neusner clearly demonstrates, just as Christianity presents an option to all of God''s faithful, so too does Judaism''s mediation of the voice of God at Sinai echo across the entire world.Rabbi Neusner challenges not only St. Paul but all of those who mistakenly think that Judaism is an ethnic religion, that is to say, a religion for a specific people without any universality of concern. The Rabbi demonstrates very clearly that this assumption is incorrect. I think St. Paul would be delighted and I know Isaiah would.- Andrew M. Greeley, Professor of Social Science, University of Chicago, and coauthor of ''The Bible and Us: A Priest and a Rabbi Read Scripture Together''More than a contribution to interfaith understanding,...a powerful mediation on religion and ethnicity carried through to the present day. In an age of ethnic conflict, this is a book as timely as it is generous and profound.- Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great BritainJacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic, popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven US and European honorary doctorates. He received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1953, his Ph.D. from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and Rabbinical Ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Judaism'' (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of ''The Review of Rabbinic Judaism,'' and Editor in Chief of ''The Brill Reference Library of Judaism'', both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of ''Studies in Judaism'', University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

About the Contributor(s):Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard. He has published more than 900 books and unnumbered articles, both scholarly and academic and popular and journalistic, and is the most published humanities scholar in the world. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees, including seven U.S. and European honorary doctorates. He received his AB from Harvard College in 1953, his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in 1961, and rabbinical ordination and the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1960.Neusner is editor of the Encyclopedia of Judaism (Brill, 1999. I-III) and its Supplements; Chair of the Editorial Board of The Review of Rabbinic Judaism, and Editor in Chief of The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, both published by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands. He is editor of Studies in Judaism, University Press of America.Neusner resides with his wife in Rhinebeck, New York. They have a daughter, three sons and three daughters-in-law, six granddaughters and two grandsons.

This book introduces Midrash both in general and through many examples of the kinds of Midrash that flourished among ancient Judaism. Neusner, as a preeminent authority on the subject, lays special emphasis upon the exegesis of Scripture produced by the Judaism of the dual Torah, oral and written.