The Seductiveness of Jewish Myth: Challenge or Response?(SUNY series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion)

The Seductiveness of Jewish Myth offers a panorama of diverse definitions of myth, understandings of Judaism, and competing evaluations of the "mythic" element in religion. The contributors focus on the problem of defining myth as a category in religious studies, examine modern religion and the role of myth in a "secularized" world, and look at specific cases of Jewish myth from biblical through modern times.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction S. Daniel Breslauer Part One: What is Jewish Myth? The Mythology of Judaism Howard Schwartz Poetry, Allegory, and Myth in Saul Tchernichowsky S. Daniel Breslauer Can the Teaching of Jewish History be Anything but theTeaching of Myth? Joel Gereboff Part Two: Modern Uses of Myth in Judaism The Invention of a Secular Ritual: Western Jewry and Nationalized Tourism in Palestine, 1922-1933 Michael Berkowitz A Rustling in the Woods: The Turn to Myth in Weimar Jewish Thought Steven M. Wasserstrom Judeophobia, Myth, and Critique David Norman Smith Part Three: Case Histories on Myth in Judaism The Poetics of Myth in Genesis Ronald S. Hendel Strange Bedfellows: Politics and Narrative in Philo Deborah Sills The Myth of Jesus in Rabbinic Literature Richard A. Freund Melchizedek: King, Priest, and God James R. Davila The Face of Jacob in the Moon: Mystical Transformations of an Aggadic Myth Elliot R. Wolfson Sabbatai Zevi, Metatron, and Mehmed: Myth and History in Seventeenth-Century Judaism David J. Halperin Contributors Index

About the Author :
S. Daniel Breslauer is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He has written many books including most recently Mordecai Kaplan's Thought in a Post-Modern Age.

Review :
"This collection of learned and innovative essays focuses on a central problem in the interpretation of Judaism: What is the place of myth in Judaism? By focusing on the problem of myth, the collection invokes the reader to ponder the evolution of Jewish self-understanding, the expression of Jewish consciousness through narrative, the link between beliefs, narratives, and social conduct, and the secularization of Judaism in the modern period. Precisely because the authors do not share the same view of myth (i.e., its nature, function, and meaning) their essays compel the reader to reexamine the mythic dimension of Judaism from a variety of perspectives in order to articulate his/her views." - Hava Tirosh-Rothschild, Indiana University