Benjamin Balint

Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life: Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Wittgenstein by Hilary Putnam Indiana University Press, 136 pages, $19.95 A funny thing happened to Hilary Putnam on the way to joining the front ranks of American philosophers. He began his long career, the last thirty-five years of . . . . Continue Reading »

Jesus in the Talmud by peter schäfer princeton university press, 232 pages, $24.95 Rabbinic literature is surprisingly silent on Christianity—but Jesus makes a cameo appearance in the Talmud, and it isn’t an endearing one. In scattered passages, the Talmud’s sages portray him as a child . . . . Continue Reading »

Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life by Jon D. Levenson Yale University Press, 304 pages, $40 In most of the mythology of ancient Greece, the gods could not revive the dead. The religion of Israel, however, saw death as firmly within the dominion of . . . . Continue Reading »

According to Pierre Hadot, a prominent historian of ancient thought and professor emeritus at the CollËge de France, philosophy today—specialized, professional, and detached from life—is but a shadow of its glorious Athenian past. But that is not the original part of his thesis. A wide . . . . Continue Reading »