Unbinding Isaac: The Significance of the Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought
Digital Verbum Edition
Save 25% during the Super Sale!$24.00
Overview
Unbinding Isaac takes readers on a trek of discovery for our times into the binding of Isaac story. Nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard viewed the story as teaching suspension of ethics for the sake of faith, and subsequent Jewish thinkers developed this idea as a cornerstone of their religious worldview. Aaron Koller examines and critiques Kierkegaard’s perspective—and later incarnations of it—on textual, religious, and ethical grounds. He also explores the current of criticism of Abraham in Jewish thought, from ancient poems and midrashim to contemporary Israel narratives, as well as Jewish responses to the Akedah over the generations.
Finally, bringing together these multiple strands of thought—along with modern knowledge of human sacrifice in the Phoenician world—Koller offers an original reading of the Akedah. The biblical God would like to want child sacrifice—because it is in fact a remarkable display of devotion—but more than that, he does not want child sacrifice because it would violate the child’s autonomy. Thus, the high point in the drama is not the binding of Isaac but the moment when Abraham is told to release him. The Torah does not allow child sacrifice, though by contrast, some of Israel’s neighbors viewed it as a religiously inspiring act. The binding of Isaac teaches us that an authentically religious act cannot be done through the harm of another human being.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Investigates the ethics of the story, asking, "What is the ethical teaching this story offers?"
- Leads his readers on a journey through a stunningly wide range of material without ever losing focus or clarity
- Concentrates on interpretations that result from thinkers thinking about the Akedah from a philosophical or theological vantage point
- Introduction: The Challenge and the Power of the Story
- Jewish Experiences of the Akedah
- Kierkegaard
- Jewish Parallels from the Century of Kierkegaard
- Jewish Followers from the Twentieth Century
- Criticizing Kierkegaard
- On Child Sacrifice
- Maimonides and the Complexity of the Divine Will
- Rejecting Child Sacrifice
- Conclusion: The Demands of God and People
Unbinding Isaac is a lucid thesis-driven tour of some of the most important interpretations of the Akedah.
Abraham Socher, Jewish Review of Books
One would have thought that centuries of dissecting twenty-odd verses of Genesis from every perspective imaginable have exhausted their meaning. Yet Koller, with his erudite grasp of both biblical literature and the longue durée of the Jewish interpretive tradition, unbinds the Akedah to reveal its philosophical and theological grandeur. As he unravels it, he wrests it from the grip of the dominant and dangerous interpretation that faith justifies violence and redirects our attention to the message that resounds in Gods’ warning to Abraham: ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy!’
James A. Diamond, Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo
Koller’s bold claim that ‘one person’s religious fulfillment cannot come through harm to another’ stands alone as a textually rooted, morally compelling vision for sincere faith in a modern world that too often finds form in false fundamentalisms. Unbinding Isaac should be required reading for all of us seeking the voice of the ethical imperative in religious community.
Yehuda Kurtzer, president, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America
Save 25% during the Super Sale!