Book Review: Monotheism and Ethics, ed. Tzvi Langermann more

Book Review: Monotheism and Ethics, ed. Tzvi Langermann (Brill, 2011), vi + 289 pages. Growing out of an eponymous conference at Bar-Ilan University, this collection of articles investigates relationships between monotheism and ethics. With such a topic, the articles can barely hint at the breadth of the subject matter. They also vary widely in quality. Several articles deserve remark in the context of the Bible-Philos list. The articles of Joseph Boyle and William Wainwright claim to draw philosophical implications from the Bible but—rather oddly—barely touch the Biblical text. In high contrast, Menachem Kellner energetically argues from the Mishnah, a Koranic quotation of the Mishnah, and other sources for moral universalism. The direct focus on breaking out of Jewish exceptionalism unfortunately sidelines consideration of the flipside of universalism: with greater status comes greater responsibility—in this case greater responsibility for non-Jews. This flipside is built into the sources marshaled, and it would be very desirable to hear more from Kellner on the obligations of non-Jews. Michael Fagenblat, though he did not attend the conference, joins this collection with an exciting article, “think[ing] beyond the dichotomy of being and goodness” and contributing to the growing body of work on Levinas’ dialogue between the Hebraic and the Greek traditions. Fagenblat shows how the concept of creation is inherently ethical, in contrast with the concept of being in the Greek philosophic tradition to which values must somehow be added, and he develops an account of how Levinas’ ethics could be understood as a phenomenology of creation. Lenn Goodman argues against reduction of piety to ethics and reduction of ethics to religion, and he shows how moral and spiritual insights clarify and confirm one another. Goodman’s article is less remarkable for its conclusions than for its perspective and voice: clear, unapologetic, rooted in tradition, with echoes of Rabbi A. J. Heschel and the Biblical prophets. Meir Simchah Panzer Bar-Ilan University meirsimchah@gmail.com