This book is designed as an aid to the study of medieval Jewish philosophy, but it offers much more. The editors, Frank and Leaman, have harnessed the expertise of eighteen scholars to give the reader a solid idea of the way scholarly understanding of the field of Jewish philosophy has advanced in the past few years. It is also, as the editors state (xv), an important recognition on the part of the "Cambridge Companions" series that the scope of the study of medieval thought needs to embrace Baghdad as well as Paris, and Arabic and Hebrew, as well as Latin.
In a masterfully brief "Introduction to the Study of Medieval Jewish Philosophy"(3-15), Oliver Leaman orients the reader to the major problems and issues inherent in the philosophical approach to Judaism taken by medieval Jews, in both Muslim and Christian countries, from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries. In particular, he notes, the use of philosophical categories in the study of Judaism meant that "[t]he idea that religion is true because it represents the truth is not acceptable in that form once it is analysed philosophically" (12). David Shatz (16-37) offers an account of the often volatile interface of the basic biblical and rabbinic texts with philosophical ideas. Joel Kraemer concludes the "Background and Context" section with an account of the "Islamic context of medieval Jewish Philosophy"(38-68), without which it would be impossible to understand how and why medieval Jewish philosophy begins.
In the second part, Sarah Stroumsa (71-90) deals with Saadia Gaon, who, if not the first medieval Jew to approach Judaism with philosophical tools, is certainly the first such figure of wide significance. More importantly, she guides the reader through the often intricate teachings of kalam, which Saadia employed in his theological writings, and clearly shows the differences between Muslim and Jewish kalam. Sara Pessin, writing about "Jewish Neoplatonism: Being above Being and divine emanation in Solomon ibn Gabirol and Isaac Israeli" (91-110), has the difficult task of dealing with the not very well defined concept of "Neoplatonism." In doing so, she tries to isolate two conceptual issues, the nature of the Godhead and its relation to the cosmos, which will "indirectly" examine what counts as "Neoplatonism," Jewish or otherwise (91). It must be said that this effort gets somewhat bogged down in philosophical detail and is thus less successful as a guide to the field than other contributions to the volume. Judah Halevi is well-known to students of medieval Jewish thought as one who warned against philosophy's pernicious influence on religion. Barry Kogan's contribution (111-135) deals with Halevi's use of philosophy in his works and tends to revise the previous scholarly consensus by positing a more nuanced attitude toward philosophy. In this, Kogan is paralleling some recent attempts at revision in the study of the Muslim thinker, Al-Ghazzali.
Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), as the most influential medieval Jewish philosopher, is the subject of two contributions. Daniel Frank (136-156) writes concerning the relationship between Maimonides and medieval Aristotelianism, and gives a lucid introduction to the study of his controversial Guide of the Perplexed. Tzvi Langermann in his contribution (157-175) does justice to Maimonides as a student of science and mathematics, an aspect of Maimonides' thought often relatively neglected in Maimonidean scholarship.
Menachem Lorberbaum in "Medieval Jewish Political Thought" (176-200) lets the reader understand that despite the lack of a medieval Jewish sovereign state, there was much interest among medieval Jewish philosophers in political philosophy.
Two essays in this volume deal with the relationship between Jewish philosophy and mysticism. Paul Fenton looks at the impact of Muslim Sufism on Jews in Islamic countries (201-217), while Hava Tirosh-Samuelson looks at the Judaic mystical tradition of kabbalah (218-257). In both essays it becomes clear that it is counterproductive to make any artificial divisions between philosophy and mysticism in attempting to deal with medieval Jewish intellectual history.
Steven Harvey (258-280) tackles the crucial transition, which took place in the thirteenth century and following, whereby Jews living in Christian countries began seriously encountering the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy, and the language of medieval Jewish philosophy changed from Arabic to Hebrew. Gregg Stern (281-303) follows up with an account of the enormous social and intellectual impact translations of philosophical texts had on the Jews of southern France.
The greatest philosophical mind to emerge from the intellectual ferment of southern French Jewry, Levi ben Gershom [Gersonides] is the subject of the essay by Charles Manekin (304-342). In it, Manekin attempts to revise a widely accepted picture of Gersonides as a religious and philosophical radical by highlighting the conservative tendencies in his writing in areas such as personal immortality and the allegorization of scripture. While still disturbing to traditionalists, Gersonides' thought, Manekin finds, "moves away from the regnant philosophical positions of his day in the direction of more traditional conceptions" (305).
In the third part, entitled "The Later Years," Tamar Rudavsky details "The Impact of Christian Scholastic Philosophy Upon Jewish Philosophy in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries" (345-370). Ari Ackerman similarly presents the part philosophical thought played in the Jewish-Christian dialogue in fifteenth century Spain (371-390). James Robinson gives us a nuanced portrayal of the most prominent fifteenth century Jewish thinker, Hasdai Crescas (391-413), and Seymour Feldman ends the volume with "The End and Aftereffects of Medieval Jewish Philosophy" (414-445), which, among other things, gives a lucid guide to how Spinoza did and did not use the legacy of medieval Jewish philosophy he studied in his youth. The volume ends with a useful "Guide to Further Reading in English" (446-463).
This volume testifies to the ways in which the study of medieval Jewish philosophy has advanced in recent years. Collectively, the authors have given us the state of the art in the subjects they have mastered, as well as a guide to the problems which will engage researchers in the field in the future. They have also created the possibility for much fruitful dialogue with scholars of medieval Islamic and Christian philosophy.