1st Edition

The Jews as a Chosen People Tradition and transformation

By S. Leyla Gurkan Copyright 2009
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    The concept of the Jews as a chosen people is a key element of the Jewish faith and identity. This book explores the idea of chosenness from the ancient world, through modernity and into the Post-Holocaust era.

    Analysing a vast corpus of biblical, ancient, rabbinic and modern Jewish literature, the author seeks to give a better understanding of this central doctrine of the Jewish religion. She shows that although the idea of chosenness has been central to Judaism and Jewish self-definition, it has not been carried to the present day in the same form. Instead it has gone through constant change, depending on who is employing it, against what sort of background, and for what purpose. Surveying the different and sometimes conflicting interpretations of the doctrine of chosenness that appear in Ancient, Modern, and Post-Holocaust periods, the dominant themes of ‘Holiness’, ‘Mission’, and ‘Survival’ are identified in each respective period. The theological, philosophical, and sociological dimensions of the question of Jewish chosenness are thus examined in their historical context, as responses to the challenges of Christianity, Modernity, and the Holocaust in particular.

    This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Jewish Studies, the Holocaust, religion and theology.

    Introduction  Part 1. Chosenness as ‘Holiness’ 1. The Biblical Language of Chosenness  2. Ancient Jewish Literature  3. Rabbinic Literature  Part 2. Chosenness as ‘Mission’  4. Universalistic Jewish Philosophies: Spinoza and Mendelssohn  5. Jewish Emancipation and Modern Jewish Movements in Germany  6. Modern Jewish Congregations in America  7. Zionist Understanding  Part 3. Chosenness as ‘Survival’  8. Discourse of ‘Holocaust and Redemption’  9. The American Experience  10. The Israeli Experience.  Conclusion


    Biography

    Leyla Gürkan is a research fellow in the department of history of religions for the Centre for Islamic Studies (ISAM), Istanbul. Her research interests include Jewish theology and comparative approach to Jewish and Islamic concepts. She is the author of a Turkish book on Judaism.

    "The concept of the Jews as a chosen people is a key element of the Jewish faith and identity. This book explores the idea of chosenness from the ancient world, through modernity and into the Post-Holocaust era. Analyzing a vast corpus of biblical, ancient, rabbinic, and modern Jewish literature, the author seeks to give a better understanding of this central doctrine of the Jewish religion. She shows that although the idea of chosenness has been central to Judaism and Jewish self-definition, it has not been carried to the present day in the same form. Instead it has gone through constant change, depending on who is employing it, against what sort of background, and for what purpose." -- Joseph Haberer, The Spring 2010 issue of Shofar