Abstract
R. Kook is best-known today for his paradoxical embrace of secular Zionism as a covert harbinger and embodiment of the traditional messianic dream. Despite its considerable influence on the trajectory of modern Israeli politics, the practical conclusions that have (rightly or wrongly) been distilled from this understanding of the nature of contemporary Jewish nationalism are increasingly challenged by a more complicated political reality. Other more radical implications of this blurring of theological boundaries, however, which have their roots in modern offshoots of classical Kabbala and parallel tropes of German idealism, bear notions that are surprisingly relevant to more fluid and humanist notions of religious belief in a post-Kantian age. These bear the potential for revising our understanding of the concept of God and of the grounding of religious dogma at large.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Cambridge companion to Jewish theology |
Editors | Steven Kepnes |
Place of Publication | Cambridge |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Chapter | 9 |
Pages | 185-212 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Volume | 3 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 1-108-23370-8 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781108415439 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Cambridge University Press 2020.
Keywords
- Jewish theology
- R. Kook
- worldly mysticism