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22 - Politics and the State

from VI - Practical Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2009

By
Abraham Melamed
Edited by
Steven Nadler  and
T. M. Rudavsky
Steven Nadler
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
T. M. Rudavsky
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Summary

BETWEEN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICAL THEOLOGY

Biblical and rabbinic literature deal with temporal political issues in various contexts. These canonical texts do have a clear position in the sphere of political theology; however, they do not contain any political philosophy in the strict sense of that term. What interests the writers are questions of the relationship between God and humans, often portrayed in political terms; God is called “king” and “judge,” and agreements between God and humans are described in terms of legal agreements between rulers and their subjects (such as brit (covenant) and amanah (contract)). Experience with relationships between human rulers and their subjects in the temporal world is superimposed on the descriptions of human relationships with the divine. Because divine revelation is described as the giving of the law (Torah) to a specific group of humans, it has a clearly political context. We also have more narrowly legal-halakhic discussions with their far-reaching political ramifications, but they do not constitute an organized body of political thinking per se in the strict Greek sense, which deals theoretically and universally with the political nature of men, classifies different kinds of government, and identifies the ultimate purpose of political existence. In any case, distinct Jewish political thought appears only when biblical and rabbinic political theology encounter Greek political philsophy. The first encounter, an isolated instance, takes place in the Hellenistic period, when Philo of Alexandria describes the leadership of Moses in terms of the Platonic philosopher-king.

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The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy
From Antiquity through the Seventeenth Century
 , pp. 768 - 789
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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