Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People
Maimonides on Judaism and the Jewish People explores Maimonides' philosophical psychology, his ethics, his views on prophecy, providence, and immortality, his understanding of the place of gentiles in the Messianic area, his attitude toward proselytes, his answer to the question, "Who is a Jew?", his conception of the nature of Torah, and his arguments concerning the nature of the Chosen People. With respect to each of these issues, Kellner shows that Maimonides adopted positions that reflected his emphasis on nurture over nature and his insistence that it is intellectual perfection and not ethnic affiliation which is crucial.
Menachem Kellner teaches medieval Jewish philosophy in the Department of Jewish History and Thought at the University of Haifa and chairs the Haifa University Department of Maritime Civilizations. He is the author of Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought and of Maimonides on Human Perfection, translator of Isaac Abravanel's Principles of Faith, and editor of Contemporary Jewish Ethics and The Pursuit of the Ideal: Jewish Writings of Steven Schwarzschild also published by SUNY Press.