RT Article
T1 Alexander Altmann, “The Encounter of Faith and Reason in the Western Tradition and Its Significance Today,” with an Introduction by Leo Strauss
JF The Jewish quarterly review
VO 112
IS 4
SP 823
OP 846
A1 Von Wussow, Philipp
LA English
PB Penn Press
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1824115334
AB The text is an annotated transcription of Alexander Altmann’s lecture at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, University of Chicago, October 1961, with a brief introduction by Leo Strauss. An introductory essay by the editor serves to situate the encounter in their larger scholarly projects and point to a few crucial issues in Strauss’s enigmatic introduction, which sets the stage for Altmann’s lucid presentation. In particular, it points to their respective stances toward Julius Guttmann, the preeminent figure in German Jewish scholarship around 1930, whom both mentioned in the text. The differences pertain to the understanding of medieval Jewish philosophy in its relation to Christianity—a topic that was little problematic for Altmann, who conceived of the Western tradition as an ongoing Jewish-Christian dialogue, whereas Strauss had sought to sketch a new understanding of the medieval Jewish enlightenment in opposition to Christian thought. Altmann’s lecture is a continuous dialogue with Strauss’s position on the encounter of “faith” and “reason” in the Western tradition.
K1 double truth
K1 Esotericism
K1 medieval Platonism
K1 Judaism and Christianity
K1 Philosophy and theology
K1 Faith and reason
K1 German Jewish philosophy
DO 10.1353/jqr.2022.0037