How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" -- it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work A Secular Age and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times.Taylor's landmark book A Secular Age (2007) provides a monumental; incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present -- a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular; making that very significant but daunting work accessible to a wide array of readers.Even more; though; Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is a practical philosophical guidebook; a kind of how-to manual on how to live in our secular age. It ultimately offers us an adventure in self-understanding and maps out a way to get our bearings in today's secular culture; no matter who "we" are -- whether believers or skeptics; devout or doubting; self-assured or puzzled and confused. This is a book for any thinking person to chew on.
#831048 in Books Gabriele Boccaccini 2001-11-08Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .57 x 5.98l; .74 #File Name: 0802843611248 pagesRoots of Rabbinic Judaism An Intellectural History from Ezekiel to Daniel
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I love Boccaccini...:-)By lwrlWhile I don't agree with all of his perspectives; what I appreciate about this author is his clarity and willingness to tackle errant paradigms that say Christianity descends out of Judaism and the notion that Judaism was and is a long continuous; monolithic; and uninterrupted religion. It isn't. Contrary to orthodox Judaism's claim to be following the identical "oral law" that Moses received on Mt. Sinai; the "Oral Law" simply didn't exist in the first century because rabbinic Judaism didn't yet exist.Virtually upon opening Pirke Avot one can see that Judaism underwent a massive change after the destruction of the Temple. That's not to say there is no carry over from previous; ancient Jewish life and practice; but how do we understand the fact that many of Jesus' teachings are to be found within rabbinic Judaism; and yet he was often (but not always) at odds with the religious leaders of his day?Most Christians assume that the Pharisees and rabbinic Judaism are essentially one and the same. Yet; they are not; and "Judaism" itself was quite variegated in the first century. Thankfully; scholars like Boyarin; Neusner; Boccaccini and many others are attempting to correct these misconceptions. I also appreciate his "Middle Judaism" book.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. About Gabriele BoccacciniBy Nathan FuchsBoccaccini; who is an Italian Catholic history professor now teaching at the University of Michigan; is one of the world's greatest experts on Second Temple Judaism. His "Roots of Rabbinic Judaism; along with his "Beyond the Essene Hypothesis;" makes a wonderful source on that historic era; which gave rise to both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. I recommend any book by Boccaccini.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. How Rabbinism may have evolved in the Second Tempe Period.By robert saundersA carefully thought out; primary text-based; developmental account of the possible precursors of Rabbinic Judaism. From Ezekiel to Daniel: with the Zadokite saga of triumphalism and compromise in the middle. It is a "must read"!
