Athens in Jerusalem: Classical Antiquity and Hellenism in the Making of the Modern Secular Jew (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) - Softcover

Yaacov Shavit; The Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization

9781874774365: Athens in Jerusalem: Classical Antiquity and Hellenism in the Making of the Modern Secular Jew (The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1874774366 ISBN 13: 9781874774365

Publisher: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1999

'Ambitious, elaborately structured and wide-ranging ...Shavit's book will be the fundamental work on Jewish Hellenism for a long time to come.' Tessa Rajak, Times Literary Supplement 'The book is an encyclopedic, if not exhaustive treatment of this subject, which, in its various permutations, is the subject of modern Jewish thought ...the prodigious scope of the book cannot but elicit astonishment and admiration. The range of subjects and fields of citation ...give the book the feel of a magnum opus.' Elliott Rabin, AJS Review 'Shavit's rich and lively study raises fundamental questions and issues that have to be addressed if Jewish and especially Israeli society is to make any sense of its heritage in the coming decades.' Mordechai Beck, Jerusalem Post 'Truly a fascinating and challenging study in Jewish intellectual history...The author has covered a spectrum of a dazzling array of writers and thinkers ...in an extremely lively and readable style.' Louis H. Feldman, Shofar From the eighteenth century on, Jews seeking to acquire a modern identity began to take a new interest in classical antiquity and Hellenistic civilization as a key to the secular Jewish culture they sought to develop. It was of course not the 'real' classical Greece to which they aspired but rather its idealized image as perceived through contemporary eyes, but this image became an important element in the search for a new Jewish self-awareness. For the modernizing Jew, 'Greek' became a metaphor for the secular culture of modern Europe in its various forms. Yaacov Shavit's study also provides an illuminating test-case in the realm of historical consciousness and the history of ideas. Those interested in the growth of secular and national Judaism will find that this wide-ranging book makes a significant contribution to an understanding of its development. Through discussion of many centuries of Jewish literature, the reader is given fresh insight into Jewish culture and shown how its development

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Product Description:

From the eighteenth century on, Jews seeking to acquire a modern identity began to take a new interest in classical antiquity and Hellenistic civilization as a key to the secular Jewish culture they sought to develop. It was of course not the real classical Greece to which they aspired but rather its idealized image as perceived through contemporary eyes, but this image became an important element in the search for a new Jewish self-awareness. For the modernizing Jew, Greek became a metaphor for the secular culture of modern Europe in its various forms. Yaacov Shavit s study also provides an illuminating test-case in the realm of historical consciousness and the history of ideas. Those interested in the growth of secular and national Judaism will find that this wide-ranging book makes a significant contribution to an understanding of its development. Through discussion of many centuries of Jewish literature, the reader is given fresh insight into Jewish culture and shown how its development in the modern period has been influenced by the response to other cultures. Those who are interested in classical antiquity and Hellenism will welcome this book as a unique opportunity to see the worlds of both as Jews perceived them over many centuries.

Review:

Ambitious, elaborately structured and wide-ranging . . . Shavit's book will be the fundamental work on Jewish Hellenism for a long time to come . . . offers as powerful a case study as one might hope to find on the uses and abuses of classical antiquity. He also has much of interest to say on matters nearer the margins of his subject. He views history as a continuum, darting to and fro in time and taking in the Ancient World itself. Thus he analyses in some detail the Jewish-Greek literature of the period, or rather the small part of it which survives, teasing out its underlying assumptions. This is a worthwhile task . . . It is a curious, and indeed fascinating feature of this book that the writing seems at moments to come from within the debate itself. --Tessa Rajak, Times Literary Supplement

Judicious . . . As a historical survey Shavit's book is both timely and suggestive. In any debate as central as this, it is crucial to have the historical data from which to draw conclusions . . . Shavit's rich and lively study raises fundamental questions and issues that have to be addressed if Jewish and especially Israeli society is to make any sense of its heritage in the coming decades. The analysis presented here provides crucial material and perspectives that others will have to respond to in the years to come. --Mordechai Beck, Jerusalem Post

Remarkable achievement . . . This is going to be the major work on Jewish Hellenism for a long time to come . . . future scholars may supplement Shavit s narrative, but none will ignore it. It should be in every library and on every syllabus for classes in Jewish studies and the reception of antiquity; and hopefully, it will stimulate dialogue and further study among the various fields of reception and cultural studies, including the history of science . . . a must-read but be prepare to burn a lot of oil while digesting its rich contents! --Richard Armstrong, Classical & Modern Literature

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.