Synopses & Reviews
Deconstructing the Bible represents the first attempt by a single author to place the great Spanish Jewish Hebrew bible exegete, philosopher, poet, astronomer, astrologer and scientist Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1164) in his complete contextual environment. It charts his unusual travels and discusses changes and contradictions in his hermeneutic approach, analysing his vision of the future for the Jewish people in the Christian north of Europe rather than in Muslim Spain. It also examines his influence on subsequent Jewish thought, as well as his place in the wider hermeneutic debate. The book contains a new translation of ibn Ezra's Introduction to the Torah, written in Lucca, northern Italy, together with a full commentary. It will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars, ranging from philosophers and theologians to linguists and students of hermeneutics.
Synopsis
Abraham ibn Ezra was a Spanish-Jewish traveler and polymath whose life and writings exemplify the cultural and intellectual currents of the 12th century renaissance. This work fills a gap in the analysis of medieval Jewish sources emerging from an Islamic cultural environment. It refutes the views, still current in certain circles, that Jewish thinkers were middlemen who merely bore the fruits of Islamic wisdom to an ignorant Christendom. This book will be of considerable interest to students of comparative literature, cultural studies, medieval history, philosophy, religious studies, and theology as well as to the lay reader.
About the Author
Irene Lancaster teaches at the University of Manchester. She lives in Salford, England.