Religious Studies 3A03 / Philosophy 3J03 (Fall 2004): MODERN JEWISH THOUGHT
After reading carefully the selections from Martin Buber's I and Thou and his essay "Religion and Philosophy," please address the question below in 2-3 well-written paragraphs.
As for past Text Preparation assignments, since this is your first reading of the texts, and since we have not yet discussed them in class, you needn't aim for definitive answers but preliminary, thoughtful responses based on detailed textual evidence. You may also include 1-2 important questions raised by your reading for further discussion.Please use parenthetical page references for your quotations and citations. Please type and double-space your answers, and number and staple the pages you hand in.
Please keep a copy of your quiz to refer to in class.
In "Religion and Philosophy," Buber reviews some traditional sources for what they have to say about the "immanence" and the "transcendence" of God. Lay out the views/sources he mentions, and explain how he presents, against this background, his own understanding of God's immanence/transcendence. If you like, you may also attempt to connect what he says here to a relevant idea in I and Thou, e.g., the "exclusivity" of the I/You relation, the fact that the I/You relation is all-encompassing, etc.
posted October 27, 2004