Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology [Hardcover]

Michael Fishbane (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226251713 | ISBN-13: 978-0226251714 | Publication Date: October 1, 2008 | Edition: 1

Contemporary theology, and Jewish theology in particular, Michael Fishbane asserts, now lies fallow, beset by strong critiques from within and without. For Jewish reality, a coherent and wide-ranging response in thoroughly modern terms is needed. Sacred Attunement is Fishbane’s attempt to renew Jewish theology for our time, in the larger context of modern and postmodern challenges to theology and theological thought in the broadest sense.
The first part of the book regrounds theology in this setting and opens up new pathways through nature, art, and the theological dimension as a whole. In the second section, Fishbane introduces his hermeneutical theology—one grounded in the interpretation of scripture as a distinctly Jewish practice. The third section focuses on modes of self-cultivation for awakening and sustaining a covenant theology. The final section takes up questions of scripture, authority, belief, despair, and obligation as theological topics in their own right.
The first full-scale Jewish theology in America since Abraham J. Heschel’s God in Search of Man and the first comprehensive Jewish philosophical theology since Franz Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption, Sacred Attunement is a work of uncommon personal integrity and originality from one of the most distinguished scholars of Judaica in our time.

(20090218)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Sacred Attunement is a profound meditation on the nature and substance of Jewish theological thinking and will immediately be, for general readers and scholars of religion alike, a major work of American Jewish theology. Fishbane’s writing elegantly and lightly bears the depth of his thought and learning while sensitively enacting the very kind of attention and attunement his theology brings to the table.”—Leora F. Batnitzky, Princeton University

(Leora F. Batnitzky )

“This is a book for which I have long been waiting: a spiritual theology, in which the Bible and its Jewish commentators teach not only Israel but all religious people how to be mindful of God. The author has retrieved the core revelation of Israel from the burden of esoteric erudition, showing how it responds to reason’s quest of Being, to the imagination’s desire to reshape the world in sight and sound, and to the mind’s natural aspiration to become attuned to its divine source.”—Louis Dupré, Yale University

(Louis Dupr� )

“This book is both an academic and a spiritual event, promising to become a time-spanning theological classic. In an unparalleled way in contemporary thought Michael Fishbane engages the depth and richness of the human mind and heart and the reality of God’s splendor. The book started out as a testament for family and friends. Then it was opened to a wider community of the truth- and justice-seeking in the academy, in religious communities and beyond. Now, Fishbane blesses us all with an immensely rich Jewish theology with a global, indeed universal message. He teaches us how to explore and shape the individually closest and deepest experiences of human life—in the light of the sanctification of the Divine. Drawing from rabbinic sources but engaging many philosophical and aesthetic traditions, this book discloses new definitions, meanings and practices for an intellectually and morally responsible and ennobling spiritual life.”—Michael Welker, Heidelberg University

(Michael Welker )

"A profoundly honest quest for authentic theological expression. . . . I was deeply engaged in what is a nuanced, personal, and very adult guide to the experience of faith."—Gordon Tucker, The Jewish Forward  

(Gordon Tucker The Jewish Forward )

"A passionately poetic devotion to the ideal of religious living, one that is serious without being preachy. When Fishbane tells us that the reality of God erupted into Jewish consciousness at Sinai, and that we have been trying to make sense of and respond to that event ever since, it is clear that he has been doing this in his own life for a very long time. And his concentrated prose and often poetic and illuminating eloquence help the reader come to grips with this task in a fresh and powerful way."—Roger S. Gottlieb, Tikkun

(Roger S. Gottlieb Tikkun )

"Fishbane''s book is a successful attempt to discern God and humanity in the ongoing flux of historical culture. This work of originality could become a primary text for doing Jewish theology in our academic milieu. Fishbane offers a human way to be mindful of God and attuned to divine life in this lucid work that illuminates the nexus of human activity and revelation in all its praiseworthy diversity. It should become a perennial resource in any study of comparative theology."—Donald J. Dietrich, Shofar

(Donald J. Dietrich Shofar )

“In this magisterial volume…Fishbane deftly examines some of the more salient reasons for this ever-increasing reluctance [by the Jews] to engage in theology….From the perspective of the trajectory of modern Jewish thought, Sacred Attunement marks a welcome shift to a postapologetic theological discourse. Fishbane does not seek to explain and justify his fidelity to his ancestral faith before a forum of philosophers or other self-appointed custodians of wisdom and reason. He suffices with a witness to ‘a journey of spiritual quest’ as embodied in the life of a pious Jew. Reading this testimony is in itself to be attuned to the sacred.”—Paul Mendes-Flohr, Journal of Religion

(Paul Mendes-Flohr Journal of Religion )

About the Author

Michael Fishbane is the Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies in the Divinity School and a member of the Committee on Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226251713
• ISBN-13: 978-0226251714
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wondrous re-beginning, December 12, 2009

By 

Christopher A. Reiger "CReiger" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology (Hardcover)

Michael Fishbane's theological ruminations are among the most honest, thorough, and moving that I've ever read. "Sacred Attunement" will one day be considered essential Jewish reading, of this I'm sure. Moreover, it should be considered by all theologians, irrespective of religious affiliation, as a worthy attempt to, as Fishbane puts it in the book's Acknowledgments, "provide [readers] with a spiritual testament of my values and worldview." And what a wondrous and rich worldview Fishbane's is!

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Attunement is Tuned In, August 28, 2011

By 

DR Ronald Levine Phd Joyce Levine (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology (Paperback)

Sacred Attunement is an excellent discourse on current trends in Jewish Theology. After presenting his take on the current state of Jewish Theology, Fishbein presents a scholarly and in depth analysis of his idea of Sacred Attunement, incorporating the latest ideas of Attachment Theory as they relate to his ideas of the presence of God in our lives. Not meant for the casual reader, it is nonetheless accessible to serious students of Jewish Theology. I highly recommend this work. Rabbi Ronald Levine, Ph.D.