Abstract
Medieval Jewish philosophers, like their Islamic and Christian contemporaries, were concerned to harmonize the tenets of Judaism with ancient Greek philosophic teachings that held sway at successive periods of Jewish history. Confronting problems in which there seemed to be a conflict between philosophical speculation (iyyun) and acceptance of dogmas of the Judaic faith (emunah), the goal of the Jewish philosopher was not only to buttress faith with understanding, but to reconcile two distinct bodies of knowledge. We shall focus upon the attempts of several major medieval Jewish figures, including Saadia Gaon (882–942), Maimonides (1135–1204), Gersonides (1288–1344), and Crescas (c. 1340–1410/1411), to reconcile the strictures of faith and reason in the context of the following issues: divine predication, creation, and theodicy.
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Bibliography
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Rudavsky, T. (2011). Philosophical Theology, Jewish. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_397
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_397
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