Moses Maimonides and Chaim Volozhiner

How Judaism Continues after the Deliteralization of God

Aryeh Botwinick

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040702642
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Politics

Moses Maimonides and Reb Chaim Volozhiner are among the most famous and influential medieval and early modern writers offering theoretical resolutions about how to comprehend the concept of God.

Aryeh Botwinick explores some of the broad based philosophical and theological issues about human understanding of God, the role of Messianism in worldly affairs, and the mystical notion of Eyn Sof. He forefronts the privacy of language and highlights the continuity between monotheistic discourse, scientific discourse, moral discourse, and common sense. In particular he analyses the views of the famed medieval Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), and the modern Talmudic master, Chaim Volozhiner (1749–1841). The author's contention is that the scope of their contributions is much wider than is generally understood.

This book will appeal to readers with an interest in Talmudic and Maimonidean studies; students of intellectual history of various monotheistic religions; and scholars and journalists specializing in Mideast conflict as well as in domestic and international internecine warfare.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The Simultaneous Genesis of Monotheism and Skepticism in Jewish Religion
• 2 Divine Unknowability versus Divine Non-Existence
• 3 Maimonides’ Theorizing of the Monotheistic God
• 4 Maimonides’ Ideal-Typological Portrait of the Judge
• 5 Maimonides on Prophecy
• 6 Avicenna, Wittgenstein, and the “Normal Mysticism of the Rabbis”
• 7 Rabbinic Genealogy: Rabbi Akiva as a Precursor of Maimonides’ Negative Theology
• 8 The West’s Stationary Metaphysical Moment: St Anselm’s Ontological Argument
• 9 Reb Chaim Volozhiner as Rooted in Maimonides’ Negative Theology
• 10 Weak Messianism as the Good: A Classical Liberal Translation of Negative Theology
• 11 Horizontality vs. Verticality: New Readings in the Understanding of Religion and the Organizing of Politics
• 12 The Case for a Negative Theological Hermeneutic of the Biblical Text
• 13 Maimonides’ Philosophy of Prayer: The Impact of Negative Theology in Reconceiving the Nature and Role of Prayer
• Index