Judaism: The Religion of Reason
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:\ \ JEHUDA MELBER, a native of Germany, was ordained at Poland's world-famous Hachmei Lublin yeshiva. He was awarded an M.A. in General Philosophy by Tufts University and a doctorate in Modern Jewish Philosophy by New York's Yeshiva University.\ The late Rabbi Melber was a chaplain in the Haganah during Israel's War of Liberation and subsequently received the Ben Gurion Award for outstanding service. He chaired the Department of Culture of Mizrachi in Israel and later served...
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Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), the author of Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism, is the pivotal figure of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jewish philosophy and theology. The Jewish thinkers influenced by him include Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Mordecai Kaplan, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Emmanuel Levinas. A thoroughgoing rationalist, Cohen was an opponent of mythology and mysticism, which he viewed as cheapening and corrupting religion. Cohen summoned Jews back to the truths of reason, the centrality of ethics, the primacy of humanity in theology, and the moral law as the essence of religious life and thought. What is essential to Cohen is the notion that God can be discovered by the processes of reason itself. It is not necessary to "believe" in God. God can be known through the exercise of reason and the pursuit of the ethical life. In this important study, Rabbi Jehuda Melber presents a comprehensive reformulation, analysis, and interpretation of Cohen's philosophy of Judaism for the contemporary reader. Library Journal Dr. Melber's analytical exposition is an important addition to the understanding of Cohen . . . Of great usefulness to students of Jewish philosophy.
\ Library JournalDr. Melber's analytical exposition is an important addition to the understanding of Cohen . . . Of great usefulness to students of Jewish philosophy.\ \
