The goal of the course is to expose students to principal discussions
within Jewish political theology, from the bible and Talmud to present
schools of thought. The "Jewish" political-theological tradition (or
indeed traditions) enables one to interrogate, to offer an alternative
discourse of legitimacy, or to think against another backdrop a set of
premises anchoring contemporary forms of political thought. The course
will focus on Jewish texts around six principal polemics that were
fundamental to Jewish intellectual history: political authority (Bible
vs. Talmud), messianism (Maimonides vs. Nachmanides), separation of
state and church (Mendelssohn vs. Orthodoxy), legal and civil equality
(Isaac Breuer vs. Hermann Cohen), the theological role of the state of
Israel (Rabbi Kook vs. Rabbi Teitelbaum), and theology beyond Judaism
(Buber vs. Levinas).
- Kursverantwortliche/r: Carmen Bluhm