Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh's Jewish Universalism

by Clémence Boulouque

Overview

Another Modernity is a rich study of the life and thought of Elia Benamozegh, a nineteenth-century rabbi and philosopher whose work profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish dialogue in twentieth-century Europe. Benamozegh, a Livornese rabbi of Moroccan descent, was a prolific writer and transnational thinker who corresponded widely with religious and intellectual figures in France, the Maghreb, and the Middle East. This idiosyncratic figure, who argued for the universalism of Judaism and for interreligious engagement, came to influence a spectrum of religious thinkers so varied that it includes proponents of the ecumenical Second Vatican Council, American evangelists, and right-wing Zionists in Israel.

What Benamozegh proposed was unprecedented: that the Jewish tradition presented a solution to the religious crisis of modernity. According to Benamozegh, the defining features of Judaism were universalism, a capacity to foster interreligious engagement, and the political power and mythical allure of its theosophical tradition, Kabbalah—all of which made the Jewish tradition uniquely equipped to assuage the post-Enlightenment tensions between religion and reason. In this book, Clémence Boulouque presents a wide-ranging and nuanced investigation of Benamozegh's published and unpublished work and his continuing legacy, considering his impact on Christian-Jewish dialogue as well as on far-right Christians and right-wing religious Zionists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781503613119
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Series:	Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Clémence Boulouque is the Carl and Bernice Witten Assistant Professor in Jewish and Israel studies at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

1. The Moroccan World of a Livornese Jew
2. An Italian Jewish Patriot in the Risorgimento
3. The Banned Author and the Oriental Publisher
4. Expanding His Readership: Benamozegh's Turn to French
5. The Afterlives of a Posthumous Manuscript
6. Situating Benamozegh in the Debate on Jewish Universalism
7. Normativity and Inclusivity in Modernity: The Role and Limits of the Noahide Laws
8. Cosmopolitanism and Universalism: The Political Value of Judaism in an Age of Nations
9. Universalism in Particularism: Benamozegh's Legacies, between Levinas and Religious Zionism
10. Kabbalah: Reason and the Power of Myth
11. Beyond Dualism: Kabbalah and the Coincidence of Opposites
12. Kabbalah as Politics
13. Religious Enmity and Tolerance Reconsidered
14. "The Iron Crucible" and Loci of Religious Contact
15. Self-Assertion and a Jewish Theology of Religions
16. Modes of Interreligious Engagement: From Theory to Social Practices

Editorial Reviews

"Another Modernity offers a brilliant portrait of Elia Benamozegh, a fascinating and largely hidden gem of modern Jewish thought. Clémence Boulouque deftly captures the Italian rabbi's singular approach to mysticism, universalism, and the role of Judaism in the modern world; she is the ideal scholar to bring Benamozegh out of an undeserved obscurity."—Jessica Maya Marglin, University of Southern California

"Clémence Boulouque brilliantly succeeds in elucidating previously neglected aspects of the work of a rabbi and philosopher who lived at the crossroads of irreconcilable worlds, yet provided a broad and consistent version of Judaism that was at once traditional and modern. This intelligent, well-informed, well-written book is an important step towards comprehending the multi-faceted thought of Elia Benamozegh."—Alessandro Guetta, INALCO, Paris

"Boulouque['s] work gives a detailed description of Benamozegh['s] character and analyzes various aspects of his thought, from political to kabbalistic, with a very rich bibliography... The book is written smoothly, and succeeds to give a complete vision of Benamozegh's thought, analyzing different perspectives, but above all gives a vast overview of what modernity is and how Benamozegh dealt with it, in a different way from classical models."—Andrea Yaakov Lattes, Sephardic Horizons

From the Publisher

"Clémence Boulouque brilliantly succeeds in elucidating previously neglected aspects of the work of a rabbi and philosopher who lived at the crossroads of irreconcilable worlds, yet provided a broad and consistent version of Judaism that was at once traditional and modern. This intelligent, well-informed, well-written book is an important step towards comprehending the multi-faceted thought of Elia Benamozegh."

Paris - Alessandro Guetta

"Another Modernity offers a brilliant portrait of Elia Benamozegh, a fascinating and largely hidden gem of modern Jewish thought. Clémence Boulouque deftly captures the Italian rabbi's singular approach to mysticism, universalism, and the role of Judaism in the modern world; she is the ideal scholar to bring Benamozegh out of an undeserved obscurity."

University of Southern California - Jessica Maya Marglin

"Boulouque['s] work gives a detailed description of Benamozegh['s] character and analyzes various aspects of his thought, from political to kabbalistic, with a very rich bibliography... The book is written smoothly, and succeeds to give a complete vision of Benamozegh's thought, analyzing different perspectives, but above all gives a vast overview of what modernity is and how Benamozegh dealt with it, in a different way from classical models."

Sephardic Horizons - Andrea Yaakov Lattes