While Israel is producing an overabundance of rabbis; the American Jewish community; it seems; is experiencing the shortage of qualified personal. In addition to the questions of quantity; the direction and the role that is played by the Jewish leaders is questioned as well. These two volumes; a product of a multi-year project to examine the challenges facing current Jewish religious leaders—rabbis; cantors; educators; and lay congregation leaders— and read at two conferences; is an attempt to place contemporary circumstances within a larger historical framework. The work represents a tangible outcome of those deliberations. The volumes review a broad sweep of the Jewish historical experience; starting with the essays on charismatic leadership in the Hebrew Bible and ending with contemporary Israel and the United States. The essays encompass Jewish life in environments as diverse as ancient Alexandria and small-town America; they range over medieval communities in Muslim lands and in Christian Tuscany; they encompass the key centers of medieval Ashkenaz and Sepharad; Germany and Spain; they include offshoot groups; such as the Karaites; and also examine the largest centers of Jewish activity in ancient Palestine and Babylonia; medieval Egypt; and pre-Holocaust Poland and Russia. Contributors run the gamut from historians to anthropologists; Bible scholars and talmudists have contributed; as have students of modern literature; philosophy; and sociology. Though organized in roughly chronological fashion and with due deference to milieu; articles in these volumes can be read profitably for how they resonate with one another even when they are concerned with communities at quite a remove in time and place
#351144 in Books Hackett Publishing Company 2013-09-13Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x 5.50 x .75l; .44 #File Name: 0872207684160 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Freedom from sin; freedom to loveBy Chungsoo LeeThe initial distinction Luther draws between the soul and the body dissolves as soon as he discusses Christian love towards other human beings. If faith alone is sufficient to save the soul; then all the works of the body are useless unless directed towards the fellow humans in love. The soul is necessary to be made right with God in faith; the body is necessary to serve others; and thus "become a Christ" for their sake. The good man does the good works and not the other way around; as Luther puts it. Having been freed from condemnation; we are free to love others. Thus freedom from the economy of works and production leads to the freedom of love. For Luther; freedom enables love. This is the soul transcending the body in the Levinasian sense.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Bruce FlanaganTo be reminded of these truths is wonderful. Of course the language​ takes some getting used too.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This translation is good and usefulBy Robert ElliotThis is a helpful translation of the German; rather than the Latin; version of Luther's Freedom of a Christian. The reader should know that the German text apparently differed in significant ways from the Latin text; as the German was directed toward a wider audience; whereas the Latin was directed more toward a scholarly audience. Because of this; there are not only stylistic; but also substantive differences in the text. For instance; the first two paragraphs of the Latin version; which discusses the "habit of faith" of the scholastics; is entirely missing from the German version. If you need a translation of The Freedom of a Christian for a class; be sure to check which text the teacher will be using. This translation is good and useful; but the translation of the Latin text is more standard for classroom purposes.
