Thinking about God: Jewish Views (JPS Essential Judaism)

Product Description

A Top Ten Book for Parish Ministry from the Academy of Parish Clergy

Who—or what—is God? Is God like a person? Does God have a gender? Does God have a special relationship with the Jewish people? Does God intervene in our lives? Is God good—and, if yes, why does evil persist in the world? In investigating how Jewish thinkers have approached these and other questions, Rabbi Kari H. Tuling elucidates many compelling—and contrasting—ways of thinking about God in Jewish tradition.

Thinking about God addresses the genuinely intertextual nature of evolving Jewish God concepts. Just as in Jewish thought the Bible and other historical texts are living documents, still present and relevant to the conversation unfolding now, and just as a Jewish theologian examining a core concept responds to the full tapestry of Jewish thought on the subject all at once, this book is organized topically, covers Jewish sources (including liturgy) from the biblical to the postmodern era, and highlights the interplay between texts over time, up through our own era.

A highly accessible resource for introductory students,
Thinking about God also makes important yet challenging theological texts understandable. By breaking down each selected text into its core components, Tuling helps the reader absorb it both on its own terms and in the context of essential theological questions of the ages. Readers of all backgrounds will discover new ways to contemplate God.

Review

“Rabbi Tuling analyzes a range of Jewish thought on major theological questions throughout history in her sharp debut.”—
Publishers Weekly

“A highly accessible resource for introductory students, 
Thinking about God also makes important yet challenging theological texts understandable. By breaking down each selected text into its core components, Tuling helps the reader absorb it both on its own terms and in the context of essential theological questions of the ages. Readers of all backgrounds will discover new ways to contemplate God.”—Dov Peretz Elkins, 
Jewish Media Review
Published On: 2021-01-12

“The differing viewpoints offered in
Thinking About God are fascinating. . . . Spiritual seekers and those interested in the development of Jewish theology will find much to enjoy.”—
Reporter
Published On: 2020-11-19

“We’re using
Thinking about God as the text for our Jewish studies discussion group at Temple Beth Shalom of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Our small intellectually lively group has met, usually bi-weekly, for several decades, every year focusing on a text that illuminates an important theme in Jewish history and thought. The group is finding the book informative and provocative.”—Robert Seltzer,
 Professor Emeritus, Hunter College CUNY 

“Rabbi Kari H. Tuling has provided a comprehensive, learned, and absorbing approach to the central religious issue of faith. In employing voices throughout Jewish tradition as well as her own voice to prod and guide the reader to think in different ways about God, she proves herself a master pedagogue who engages the reader on every page. This is an important religious book!”—Rabbi David Ellenson, chancellor emeritus, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion
Published On: 2019-09-23

“Growing out of a university-level Jewish studies course,
Thinking about God: Jewish Views serves as a comprehensive and exceptionally accessible complement to the Jewish studies classroom. Tuling’s analysis is delightfully methodical—furnishing thoughtful observations and comparisons among Jewish belief promulgated within traditional sources, subsequently challenged by the modern, emancipatory influences of the European Enlightenment, and further disrupted by postmodern interrogations into the very necessity of God. At the same time, in leading the reader beyond conventional texts on Jewish thought, this work has much in common with the creative, groundbreaking theological reflections of Buber, Levinas, and Ros