Sep 17, 2018 By: yunews
Dr. David Shatz, Ronald P. Stanton University Professor of Philosophy, Ethics, And Religious Thought and chair of the department of philosophy at has had a productive 2018.
He published a 62-page article, 鈥淐ontemporary Scholarship on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik: Where We Are, Where We Can Go,鈥 in Scholarly Man of Faith: Studies in The Thought and Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (co-published by Bar-Ilan University Press and 色花堂 Press in 2017). He describes the volume, and his contribution to it, as 鈥渁n analytical review of literature on Rabbi Soloveitchik by academic scholars.鈥
This month, he will publish 鈥淏etween the Ritual and the Ethical: Mastery Over the Body in Modern Theories of Ta鈥檃mei ha-Mitsvot,鈥 to appear in Dine Israel, a yearly journal dedicated to publishing articles on Jewish Law and halacha [Jewish law] from various standpoints. 鈥淭he Hebrew phrase,鈥 Dr. Shatz explained, 鈥渃an be rendered as 鈥楻easons for the Commandments.鈥 The paper grew out of a conference at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and argues that the increased significance of embodied life in modern thought affects the understanding in certain thinkers of the reasons supporting the commandments.鈥
In June, he presented a paper at a conference at the University of Haifa on 鈥淧hilosophy of Religion.鈥 Titled 鈥淓schewing theodicies,鈥 it evaluated the resistance of some philosophers to seeking to solve the problem of evil. (A theodicy is an attempt to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil.)
The next month, in July, he participated in a small workshop at the University of Illinois in Chicago on the subject of 鈥淐onstructive Jewish Theology.鈥 鈥淪trangely,鈥 Dr. Shatz noted, 鈥渢he concept of God has somewhat faded from contemporary religious thought, and the workshop was a step toward restoring it.鈥
