EVENT DETAILS

Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism and the Christianization of Modern Judaism A Lecture by Shaul Magid (Indiana University)

Hasidism has contributed to modern Judaism in unpredictable ways; more
specifically, in exhibiting certain similarities between Judaism and Christianity that
were erased through the rationalization of Judaism in the modern era. This talk will
focus specifically on two periods of Jewish thinking about Christianity in the twentieth
century to show that, as Jews have become less invested in making a case for
Judaism contra Christianity, they often illustrate similarities between the two
religions. Emerging as a powerful force in postwar Judaism, Hasidism serves as a
traditional example of the closeness of Judaism to Christianity when Judaism
develops outside the gaze of Christian critique.

Shaul Magid is professor of Religious Studies and the Jay and Jeannie
Schottenstein Professor of Modern Judaism at Indiana University, Bloomington. His
teaching focuses on Kabbalah, Hasidism, medieval and modern Jewish philosophy,
and American Jewish thought. He is author of Hasidism on the Margin:
Reconciliation, Antinomianism, and Messianism in Izbica and Radzin Hasidism, and,
most recently, From Metaphysics to Midrash: Myth, History and the Interpretation of
Scripture in Lurianic Kabbalah, which won the 2008 American Academy of Religion
Award for Best Book in Religion in the Textual Studies Category.

Events are free and open to the public.

Parking at Mesa Parking Structure. For parking information visit
www.parking.uci.edu

For event information, contact Professor Matthias Lehmann,
mlehmann@uci.edu .

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