UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA–DAVIS
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Secular Jewish Thinkers
Is it possible to be Jewish without believing in Judaism? Since the
dawn of the modern age, secular Jewish thinkers have sought to
construct identities beyond Judaism, that is, beyond the bounds of
religion. This course will trace the history of secular Jewish thought
from the seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza to the
twentieth century. Some of the thinkers who will be considered, such as
Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, rejected religion altogether, while
others, including Spinoza, Franz Kafka, and Gershom Scholem, redefined
religion and theology in new, often radically subversive ways. The
course will examine secular redefinitions of Judaism, such as those of
certain Zionist thinkers and writers like Ahad Ha’am, Micha Yosef
Berdichevsky, and Hayim Nahman Bialik. Finally, the course will look at
American Jewish and feminist thinkers who have challenged common
conceptions of Judaism. This is a course not only for those interested
in modern Jewish thought, but in modernity itself.
Assigned books
Peter Gay, A Godless Jew: Atheism and the Making of Psychoanalysis. Yale University Press 0-300-04608-1
Benedict Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise. Hackett. 0-87220-607-6
Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion. Norton. 0-393-00831-2
Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism. Knopf. 0-394-70014-7
Course Reader
Course Calendar
1. Introduction: Is Secularism a part of Judaism?
Book of Numbers 16
Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia 59b
2. Medieval Precursors: Part I
Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, I:55, I:58
David Biale, “Philosophy and Exegesis in the Writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra,” Comitatus
3. Medieval Precursors: Part II
Moses Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, III:26 and III:32
4. Baruch/Benedict Spinoza: Part I
Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, intro, 1-47
The Writ of Excommunication Against Baruch Spinoza
Isaac Deutscher, “The Non-Jewish Jew,” in Judaism in a Secular Age, 205-212
5. Spinoza: Part II
Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, 48-115
Yermiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics, vol. 1, 3-39
6. Spinoza: Part III
Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, 165-230
Yermiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics, vol. 1, 172-209
7. Psychoanalysis as Jewish Heresy: Part I
Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion
Peter Gay, A Godless Jew, 1-68
8. Psychoanalysis: Part II
Sigmund Freud,Moses and Monotheism, Parts I and II
Gay, A Godless Jew, 69-114
9. Psychoanalysis: Part III
Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, Part III
Gay, A Godless Jew, 115-156
10. Solomon Maimon, Karl Marx and Otto Weininger: Heretics or Self-Hating Jews?
Solomon Maimon, “My Emergence from Talmudic Darkness,” in The Jew in the Modern World, 214-218
Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question,” in Karl Marx: Early Writings, 3-40
Otto Weininger, “The Jew Must Free Himself from Jewishness,” in The Jew in the Modern World, 233-236
11. Moses Hess: Between Religion, Race and Nation
Moses Hess, The Holy History of Mankind, 92-93
Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem, 58-61, 96-105, 211-216
Shlomo Avineri, "Moses Hess: Socialism and Nationalism as a Critique of Bourgeois Society," in The Making of Modern Zionism, 36-46
12. Secular Nationalism: Part 1
Simon Dubnow, Nationalism and History in Judaism in a Secular Age 79-89
Ahad Ha-am, "The People of the Book," and "the Supremacy of Reason," in Judaism in a Secular Age, 113-116
Ahad Ha-am, "Priest and Prophet," and "Flesh and Spirit," in Selected Essays, 125-158
Haim Zhitlovsky, "Death and Rebirth of Gods and Religion" and "The National Poetic Rebirth of the Jewish People" in Judaism in a Secular Age, 90-95
Shlomo Avineri, "Ahad Ha-am," in The Making of Modern Zionism, 112-124
13. Secular Nationalism: Part II
Max Nordau, "The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization," in Judaism in a Secular Age, 100-104
Shlomo Avineri, "Nordau," in The Making of Modern Zionism, 101-111
Micha Yosef Berdichevsky, "Wrecking and Building," "Two Directions," "The Question of Culture," and "On Sanctity," in The Zionist Idea, 290-302
Ahad Ha-am, "Transvaluation of Values," in Selected Essays, 217-241
Joseph Hayyim Brenner, "And This is Our Nationalism!" in Judaism in a Secular Age, 127-133
Joseph Hayyim Brenner, "Self-Criticism," in The Zionist Idea, 305-312
Jacob Klatzkin, "Boundaries," in The Zionist Idea, 314-327
14. Language and Secularism
Saul Tchernikhovsky, "Facing the Statue of Apollo"
Hayyim Nahman Bialik, "Revealment and Concealment in Language"
15. Weimar Heretics
Gershom Scholem, "Revelation and Tradition as Religious Categories in Judaism" in Messianic Idea, 282-303
Gershom Scholem, "Letter to Zalman Schocken" in David Biale, Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History
Franz Kafka, "Before the Law"
Franz Kafka, "My Father's Bourgeois Judaism"
Nahum N. Glatzer, "Franz Kafka and the Tree of Knowledge"
16. The Jewess as Pariah
Hannah Arendt, “The Jew as Pariah,” in The Jew as Pariah, 67-90
Eichmann in Jerusalem: Exchange of letters with Gershom Scholem, in ,i>The Jew as Pariah, 240-251
17. American Heretics
Mordecai Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization, 303-331
Horace Kallen, “Is There a Jewish View of Life” and "Judaism at Bay" in Judaism in a Secular Age, 165-172
Richard Rubinstein, After Auschwitz, 83-90, 131-142, 227-241
18. Feminist Heretics
Cynthia Ozick, “"Notes Towards Asking the Right Question" in Susannah Heschel, On Being a Jewish Feminist, 120-151
Rachel Adler, "In Your Blood Live: Re-Visions of a Theology of Purity," in Tikkun 8:1: 38-41
Bibliography
Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx
Avineri, Shlomo, The Making of Modern Zionism
Biale, David, Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah and Counter-History
Carlebach, Julius, Karl Marx and the Radical Critique of Judaism
Cuddihy, John Murray, The Ordeal of Civility : Freud, Marx, Lévi-Strauss, and the Jewish Struggle with Modernity
Eisen, Arnold, Chosenness in America
Fischman, Dennis K., Political Discourse in Exile : Karl Marx and the Jewish Question
Gilman, Sander, Jewish Self-Hatred : Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews
Hertzberg, Arthur, The Zionist Idea
Koltun-Fromm, Kenneth, Moses Hess and Modern Jewish Identity
Levene, Nancy, Spinoza's Revelation: Religion, Democracy, and Reason
Nadler, Steven, Spinoza: A Life
Nadler, Steven, Spinoza’s Heresy
Robert, Marthe, From Oedipus to Moses
Seeskin, Kenneth, Jewish Philosophy in a Secular Age
Seeskin, Kenneth, Searching for a Distant God: The Legacy of Maimonides
Seigel, Jerrold, Marx's Fate : The Shape of a Life
Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, Freud's Moses : Judaism Terminable and Interminable
Zipperstein, Steven, Elusive Prophet: A Biography of Ahad Ha-am
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