How Judaism Became a Religion
Among other outstanding speakers this semester, the William and 玛丽 Judaic Studies Department had the unique pleasure of welcoming Leora Batnitzky, Ph.D., and Director of The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Jewish Studies at Princeton. Much like in her book, How Judaism Became a Religion, Dr. Batnitzky centered her lecture on Judaism’s shift towards a more modern notion of religion. Building her ideas on the relationship between Kant’s Religion (1793), Schliermacher’s Speeches (1799), and Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem(1783).
Beginning with Schliermacher’s first speech, and highlighting its defense of religion in response to Kant six years prior, Batnitsky details Kant’s approach to practical reason. Emphasizing the importance of treating people as “ends within themselves” she explained the dichotomy between Kant and Schliermacher’s respective works. Kant’s whole rejection of religion within reason, alongside Schliermacher’s belief that everybody is religious at their core Dr. Batnitsky elucidated the point that because these two philosophers, and by extension rationalists and existentialists as a whole, are radically different they cannot coexist.
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