Edward Breuer, Jews and the Challenges of Modern Biblical Criticism
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Shoshana Shier Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture Series
Edward Breuer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Jews and the Challenges of Modern Biblical Criticism
Lecture 3: Jews and the Critical Study of the Bible: A Window on Modern Jewish History
The Jewish reception of biblical criticism over the past two and a half centuries has largely reflected the different ways in which Jews have responded to modernity more broadly. This lecture will offer a survey of the different approaches adopted by Jews in the modern era, pointing to some new sources that underscore the difficulties and challenges posed by the modern historical-critical study of the Hebrew Bible.
Edward Breuer, a native of Montreal, Canada, studied at Concordia University and then received his MA and doctorate in Jewish intellectual history at Harvard. After teaching at the University of Pennsylvania and Loyola University Chicago, he and his family moved to Israel; he has been teaching at the Hebrew University since 2004. He has written extensively on Moses Mendelssohn, including a volume of translations of his Hebrew writings. His current long-term project, a collaboration with Marc Brettler (a Bible scholar at Duke University), is an examination of the Jewish reception of modern critical scholarship on the Bible.