Overview

Accepting and Excepting: On Pluralism and Chosenness Out of the Sources of Judaism is a collection of essays examining the need for inter-religious pluralism. So long as religions compete with each other by exclusive claims to absolute truth and salvation, how can they cooperate as forces for peace in an era of the global village and weapons of mass destruction? Our cognition of reality is necessarily colored and shaped by language, culture, religion, and gender. Given inevitable epistemological (not moral) relativism, exclusive and absolute truth claims are meaningless. By a process of revaluation, Jews can affirm the concept of the Chosen People as internally directed with no claims of superiority, and observe traditional sancta without traditional theism.

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Reviews

“Raphael Jospe is a thinking Jew and at the same time an important Jewish thinker. As a thinking Jew, he is not afraid to stake out brave positions on controversial topics such as the nature of Jewish chosenness, pluralism, idolatry, and prophecy among the nations. As an important Jewish thinker, he finds support for his positions in a wide variety of authoritative Jewish sources. These include the Bible and Rabbinic Literature, and thinkers such as Sa’dia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, and Abraham ibn Ezra. Jospe brings these medieval thinkers into creative conversation with moderns like Moses Mendelssohn and especially Mordecai Kaplan. Throughout this lively and sparkling book, we also find Jospe himself in dialogue with a wide variety of contemporary scholars of Jewish Thought. Raphael Jospe is not only a thinker, but he is also an activist; for over a generation he has taken a leading role in encounters with Christianity and Mormonism. There is thus much to be learned from this learned and thought-provoking book.”—Menachem Kellner, Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa and Founding Chair (retired) of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem “Based on a learned reading of biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern sources, Raphael Jospe presents a smiling, wise, and pluralistic Judaism that respects and accepts the Other. In our divisive times, this is a welcome and urgent message.” —Zev Warren Harvey, professor emeritus in the Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem “Raphael Jospe’s Accepting and Excepting offers Jewish approaches to religious pluralism —both internal Jewish pluralism and Jewish views of other religions—which are a product of the author’s reflections on this subject, starting when he was a thoughtful and inquisitive high school student to the present day, as a retired professor of Jewish philosophy. The result of these reflections is a book which is highly informed by scholarship but with remarkable personal aspects. Jospe’s teaching, research and participation in intra-faith and inter-faith encounters make him uniquely qualified to address among other questions: How can Jews be loyal to their own religious and theological stances without denying or denigrating the positive aspects of competing religious doctrines? How can Jews advocate pluralism without adopting a relativistic approach towards their own beliefs? In our era of cleavage and controversy, this voice for tolerance out of the sources of Judaism is most welcome.” —Daniel J. Lasker, Blechner Professor Emeritus of Jewish Values, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev  “The thread of blue binding this book’s pages is a line Mordecai Kaplan sent the future author in 1967: 'In Judaism as a civilization, “belonging” is prior to “believing” although meaningless without believing.' Collating years of study, seeking the meanings and connections of believing and belonging, Raphael Jospe traces the narrow ledge dividing pluralism from relativism, always surer of his footing on solid moral ground than trusting pitons anchored overhead. Torah and Talmud, and philosophical classics from Aristotle to Kant, mark the trail with traces of bold advances and partial falls. Maimonides, Nahmanides, Bahya, and Halevi have left guideposts and cautions. So have Muslim philosophers like al-Farabi, al-Ghazali, and Averroes, and Jewish greats from Rashi and Ibn Ezra to Spinoza and Mendelssohn, from Falaquera to Rosensweig, Buber, Heschel, and Jonathan Sacks. The probing conversation does not neglect our own contemporaries, many of them Jospe’s friends and fellow seekers.“ —Lenn E. Goodman, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Philosophy, Furman Hall, author of Judaism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation “In our polarized world, challenged by moral relativism on the one hand and extremist religious ideologies on the other, Raphael Jospe offers us a timely vision of deep religious commitment together with a moral clarity that genuinely respects and indeed celebrates diversity. Mastering— and often critiquing—an impressive array of classical and modern Jewish sources, as well as insights from beyond Jewish tradition, he presents both a theoretical and practical road map for an authentic Jewish pluralist outlook, both interreligious as well as intra-religious. As Professor Jospe states, his goal is not to disregard differences, 'but to enhance them out of dialogue with other perspectives, learning with and from each other out of true respect for “the other.”' Accordingly he presents a vision of wisdom and hope for our world in which 'everyone will sit under their own vine and their own fig tree and no-one will make them afraid' (Micah 4:4)” —Rabbi David Rosen, KSG CBE, former International Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee and an International President of Religions for Peace

Author Information

Raphael Jospe (Ph.D. Brandeis University) is a retired professor of Jewish philosophy in Jerusalem. Author/editor of more than 20 books and editor of the Jewish philosophy division of theEncyclopaedia Judaica, he is involved in inter-religious dialogue and has lectured at the Vatican and at the World Council of Churches.

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