HESCHEL CENTENARY CONFERENCE - CALL FOR PAPERS:

Celebrating Abraham Joshua Heschel at 100
Jerusalem, 25-27/12/2007

The Tenth Annual Conference of
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought
Robert M. Beren College, Beit Morasha of Jerusalem

Call for Papers:
Heavenly Torah: The Book and its Themes through the Prism of a Generation


This year we celebrate Abraham Joshua Heschel’s 100’th birthday. One of his most important works, published originally in Hebrew, with the English title “Theology of Ancient Judaism”, recently appeared in English translation as “Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations”. The tenth annual conference of the Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought will be dedicated to a reexamination of this work, its importance, its theological innovation, and a critique of it. Themes and issues that are seminal to the work will be discussed in their own light and in light of Heschel’s work. We herewith invite presentations, in Hebrew and in English, that address a broad range of subjects that grow out of Heschel’s work. These include:

General and specific assessment and critique of Heschel’s work in “Heavenly Torah.”

Understanding “Heavenly Torah” in the context of Heschel’s theological oeuvre.

Methodological issues in the study of rabbinic thought and Jewish theology that arise from the work; making the study of the rabbis’ thought systematic; types of theological creativity and the role of historical theology.

Retrieving the thought of individual rabbis and of constitutive “machlokot”.

Agadda and theology.

The rabbis between prophecy and apocalypse.

Specific theological issues: God, anthropomorphism, suffering, etc.

The schools of R. Akiva and R. Ishmael - halachic, hermeneutic and philosophical perspectives.

Rationalism and mysticism in rabbinic thought.

Torah from Heaven, revelation and role of human creativity in making the Torah.

Please send proposals for the conference to Alon Goshen-Gottstein, amgogo@bmj.org.il, by 20.9.07.

Sincerely

Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein
The Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought
Bet Morasha of Jerusalem