Synopses & Reviews
Imagine that you could
really understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom.
The Beginning of Wisdom is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, "a coherent anthropology" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that "rivals anything produced by the great philosophers." Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of The Beginning of Wisdom explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate question: How to live a good life? Connecting the two "parts" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical structure: how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness.
A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, The Beginning of Wisdom is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time.
Review
Leon Wieseltier Author of Kaddish Once upon a time, before everyone was an original, commentary was a proud and primary activity of serious intellectuals, and no embarrassment attached to the hunger for wisdom. With this uncommonly rich and stimulating book, Leon R. Kass has refreshed a magnificent tradition and grandly joined its ranks. There are genuine profundities in these pages. They teach by example that there is nothing more beautiful than philosophy. Happy (but not too happy!) is the man who thinks such thoughts, and happy is the reader upon whom such thoughts fall.
Review
Michael Fishbane Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies, The University of Chicago Tertullian famously asked, What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? -- and now Leon Kass has formulated an answer, the product of a lifelong quest: the reason of philosophy can help reveal the spirit of Scripture. The result is a penetrating reading of Genesis, with challenging conclusions. Writing in luminous prose, Kass draws his reader into a pedagogy of compelling thoughtfulness.
Review
Kirkus Reviews (starred) A learned and fluent, delightfully overstuffed stroll through the Gates of Eden....Mix Harold Bloom with Stephen Jay Gould and you'll get something like Kass. A wonderfully intelligent reading of Genesis.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 667-678) and index.
About the Author
Leon R. Kass is the Addie Clark Harding Professor (on leave) in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago and Hertog Fellow in Social Thought at the American Enterprise Insti-tute. Currently Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, he is the author of three books, most recently Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics, and coauthor of two more. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Preface: The Professor and the Fossil
Introduction: The Beginning of Wisdom
PART ONE DANGEROUS BEGINNINGS:
THE UNINSTRUCTED WAYS
GENESIS 1-11
1. Awesome Beginnings: Man, Heaven, and the Created Order
2. The Follies of Freedom and Reason: The Story of the Garden of Eden (I)
3. The Vexed Question of Man and Woman: The Story of the Garden of Eden (II)
4. Fratricide and Founding: The Twisted Roots of Civilization
5. Death, Beautiful Women, and the Heroic Temptation: The Return of Chaos and the Flood
6. Elementary Justice: Man, Animals, and the Coming of Law and Covenant
7. Paternity and Piety: Noah and His Sons
8. Babel: The Failures of Civilization
PART TWO EDUCATING THE FATHERS
GENESIS 12-50
Abraham (Genesis 12-25)
9. Educating the Fathers: Father Abraham
10. Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Marriage
11. Educating Father Abraham: The Meaning of Patriarchy
Isaac (Genesis 25-28)
12. Inheriting the Way: From Father to Son
13. The Education of Isaac: From Son to Patriarch
Jacob (Genesis 28-35)
14. The Adventures of Jacob: The Taming of the Shrewd
15. Brotherhood and Piety: Facing Esau, Seeing God
16. Politics and Piety: Jacob Becomes Israel
The Generations of Jacob: Joseph, Judah, and Their Brothers (Genesis 36-50)
17. The Generations of Jacob: The Question of Leadership
18. Joseph the Egyptian
19. Joseph and His Brothers: Estrangement and Recognition
20. Israel in Egypt: The Way Not Taken
21. Losing Joseph, Saving Israel: Jacob Preserves the Way
Epilogue: The End of the Beginning
Endnotes
Index