In this volume, Professor Shmueli, a distinguished Israeli scholar, has synthesized history, philosophy, biblical scholarship, sociology, literature and psychology into an original and profound view of Jewish history. Jewish history is viewed as an unfolding of seven successive systems of cultures, where each culture emerges in its time both as a rebel and a successor of previous cultures. Each presents itself as a distinct and often startlingly different framework in which the meaning of Jewish life is always interpreted anew. In this sense, Jewish history may be said to have undergone seven great 'Renaissances'. Seven Jewish Cultures emphasizes the chasm which divides the five 'cultures of faith' from the secular cultures of the Emancipation and nationalist-Israeli periods. Shmueli argues that the cultures of modernity have created a new frame of reference for the Jewish people. No longer is Jewish history viewed as a divine drama, and no longer is the Bible seen as the hermeneutical key to all Jewish problems.

In this volume, Professor Shmueli, a distinguished Israeli scholar, has synthesized an original and profound view of Jewish history.
Reviews
"This elegant translation of Shmueli's 1980 magnum opus continues the tradition of the great modern historians of the Jews who believed that the critical scrutiny of the Jewish past should yield a program for the reconstruction of Jewry in the future." Religious Studies Review
"Seven Jewish Cultures provides an answer for both Orthodox and Secular Jews." Shimon Perez



Book Information
ISBN 9780521373814
Author Efraim Shmueli
Format Hardback
Page Count 312
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 630g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm