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Full Description
Thorough and meticulously researched, this study
is based on a comprehensive reading of philosophical arguments drawn from all
the major Jewish sources, published and unpublished, from the Geonic period in
the ninth century until the dawn of the Haskalah in the late eighteenth
century.
The core of the book is a detailed discussion of
the four doctrines of Christianity whose rationality Jews thought they could
definitively refute: trinity, incarnation, transubstantiation, and virgin
birth. In each case, Daniel Lasker presents a succinct history of the Christian
doctrine and then proceeds to a careful examination of the Jewish efforts to
demonstrate its impossibility. The main text is clearly written in a
non-technical manner, with the Christian doctrines and the Jewish responses
both carefully explained; the notes include long quotations, in Hebrew and
Arabic as well as in English, from sources that are not readily available in
English.
At the time of its original publication in 1977
this book was regarded as a major contribution to a relatively neglected area
of medieval Jewish intellectual history; the new, wide-ranging introduction
prepared for this paperback edition, which surveys and summarizes subsequent
scholarship, re-establishes its position as a major work.
Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition
1 Introduction
General Principles
Philosophical Arguments
Exegetical Arguments • Historical Arguments • Rational Arguments
Procedure to the Followed
2 Sources
The Various Methods of the Polemicists
Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible • Exegesis of Rabbinical Literature • Attacks on
Christianity • Comparisons of Christian Doctrines with the New Testament •
Attacks on the Articles of Christianity • Comparisons of Christianity with the Principles of Philosophy
The Literary Style of the Polemics
Other Sources of Jewish Philosophical Arguments
The Christian Sources
3 The Use of Reason in Religious Debates
Explanations of Christian Belief in Irrational Doctrines
Maimonides' Guidelines
The Polemical Approach of the Jewish Averroists
Criteria for Determining Logical Impossibility
Conclusions
4 Trinity
Trinity Implies Matter
The Divine Attributes Are Not Persons
Jewish Kalamic Refutations of the Trinity • Aristotelian Refutations
Generation Disproves Unity
The Specific Generation of Jesus • Eternal Generation of the Son
Syllogistic Logic Refutes the Trinity
Images of the Trinity
Conclusions
5 Incarnation
God is Incorporeal
God's Incorporeality Precludes Incarnation • God Cannot be Limited in Place
God is Immutable
God's Simple Unity Precluses Incarnation
A Union of Divinity and Humanity is Impossible
Types of Physical Union • The Person of Jesus
Conclusions
6 Transubstantiation
The Interpenetrability of Bodies
How Could the Body of Jesus Enter Bread? • How Could Jesus' Large Body Fit
into Smaller Dimensions? • How Could Jesus Pass Through the Heavens Without
Damaging Them?
The Concepts of Number and Place
Simultaneity of Jesus' Body on Many Altars Remaining One • Simultaneity of
Jesus' Body Being in Many Places
The Concept of Motion
Motion in No Time is Impossible • One Body Cannot Be in Motion and Rest at
the Same Time
The Problem of Accidents
How Can Accidents be Without Subjects? • The Senses Must Not Be Deceived •
Substance Cannot become Accident, nor Accident Substance
Miscellaneous Arguments
Conclusions
7 Virgin Birth
The Interpenetrability of Bodies
Images of the Virgin Birth
Conclusions
8 Conclusions
Jewish Knowledge of Christianity
The Sources of Jewish Arguments
The Role of Philosophy in Jewish-Christian Relations
The Significance of the Medieval Jewish Philosophical Polemics Against
Christianity
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Citations
General Index
