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Kenneth Hart Green’s Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss by Laurence Berns

October 20, 1997

In his book on Leo Strauss, Jew and Philosopher..., Kenneth Hart Green has provided the first serious study of the development ofStrauss's thought. Strauss's fundamental thought that revealed theology and philosophy are mutually irrefutable takes the form in Maimonides of a cosmological opposition between creation and eternity. Philosophy's incapacity to refute its revealed counterpart requires recognition of that counterpart as a possibility. Green's Strauss's Maimonides' prophetology articulates human perfection as a reconciliation of reason and revelation, a reconciliation of prophet and philosopher-king.

Kenneth Hart Green’s Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss

October 20, 1997

Are philosophy and biblical faith compatible? Early, Strauss wrote that in every attempt to harmonize them, one of the two is sacrificed to the other. Later, he seemed to think that the two can co-exist peacefully, each learning from the other. I argue that there is no place for revelation in the life of reason. Because Maimonides was primarily a philosopher, he argued that there were rational grounds for all the commandments. Philosphy thus enslaves revelation instead of co-existing peacefully with it.

The Study and Teaching of Jewish Political Materials in Courses on Political Philosophy

October 2, 1989 | Morton Frisch

Jewish political philosophy appeared rather late in Judaism, but on its appearance became very much a part of medieval political philosophy. Medieval political philosophy, however, has a questionable status within the field of political philosophy, partly because of its belief that the highest political teaching is contained in revelation or divine law and partly because most medieval texts are seen either as little more than commentaries on Aristotelian texts or as attempts to reconcile philosophy with theology. The reality of revelation was the decisive presupposition of the medieval philosophers, and that is the reason why medieval political philosophy is so rarely studied today and when studied it seems so alien.