Abraham Wolf: A Forgotten Jewish Reform Thinker
Professor Abraham Wolf, known to scholarship as a historian of ideas and of science, was brought up as an observant Jew and began his career as a Reform rabbi in Manchester, England, in the first decade of this century. Wolf's Reform Judaism was, however, an uneasy compromise between his orthod...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Penn Press
1991
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| In: |
The Jewish quarterly review
Year: 1991, Volume: 81, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 267-304 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Professor Abraham Wolf, known to scholarship as a historian of ideas and of science, was brought up as an observant Jew and began his career as a Reform rabbi in Manchester, England, in the first decade of this century. Wolf's Reform Judaism was, however, an uneasy compromise between his orthodox background and his rationalist inclinations. In the pulpit he was a recognized apologist for Reform theory and practice. He also wrote articles and reviewed contemporary works on theology and literary scholarship in the "Jewish Quarterly Review." Wolf was a disciple of Spinoza, a Jew generally regarded as a Western rationalist philosopher. He attempted to resolve his identity crisis (Jew on the one hand, philosopher and intellectual on the other) by a syncretic approach to religion, but the syncretism failed, in part because Judaism could not be reconciled with contemporary Christianity, in part because Judaism itself was at war over the split between Orthodoxy and Reform. Eventually Wolf gave up his pulpit and devoted himself entirely to secular teaching and writing. This article surveys Wolf's early work and identifies themes which continued to be important during his later scholarly career. It includes, as an appendix, a bibliography of Wolf's publications during his Manchester period. |
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| ISSN: | 1553-0604 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Jewish quarterly review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1455321 |