Athens in Jerusalem: Classical Antiquity and Hellenism in the Making of the Modern Secular Jew - Brossura

Shavit, Yaacov

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1874774366 ISBN 13: 9781874774365

Casa editrice: Littman Library of Jewish, 1999

Riassunto

From the 18th Century on, Jews seeking to aquire a modern identify began to take a new interest in classical antiquity and Hellenistic civilization as a key to the secular Jewish culture they sought to develop. It was of course not the 'real' classical Greece to which they aspired but rather its idealized image as perceived through contemporary eyes, but this image became an important element in the search for a new Jewish self-awareness. For the modernizing Jew, "Greek" became a metaphor for the secular culture of modern Europe in its various forms.

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Recensione

Ambitious, elaborately structured and wide-ranging . . . Shavit's book will be the fundamental work on Jewish Hellenism for a long time to come . . . offers as powerful a case study as one might hope to find on the uses and abuses of classical antiquity. He also has much of interest to say on matters nearer the margins of his subject. He views history as a continuum, darting to and fro in time and taking in the Ancient World itself. Thus he analyses in some detail the Jewish-Greek literature of the period, or rather the small part of it which survives, teasing out its underlying assumptions. This is a worthwhile task . . . It is a curious, and indeed fascinating feature of this book that the writing seems at moments to come from within the debate itself. --Tessa Rajak, Times Literary Supplement

Judicious . . . As a historical survey Shavit's book is both timely and suggestive. In any debate as central as this, it is crucial to have the historical data from which to draw conclusions . . . Shavit's rich and lively study raises fundamental questions and issues that have to be addressed if Jewish and especially Israeli society is to make any sense of its heritage in the coming decades. The analysis presented here provides crucial material and perspectives that others will have to respond to in the years to come. --Mordechai Beck, Jerusalem Post

Remarkable achievement . . . This is going to be the major work on Jewish Hellenism for a long time to come . . . future scholars may supplement Shavit s narrative, but none will ignore it. It should be in every library and on every syllabus for classes in Jewish studies and the reception of antiquity; and hopefully, it will stimulate dialogue and further study among the various fields of reception and cultural studies, including the history of science . . . a must-read but be prepare to burn a lot of oil while digesting its rich contents! --Richard Armstrong, Classical & Modern Literature

L'autore

Yaacov Shavit is Professor of the History of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv University.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Littman Library of Jewish
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1874774366
• ISBN 13: 9781874774365
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 576