Lexington Books
Pages: 126
Trim: 6½ x 9
978-1-4985-3587-8 • Hardback • October 2018 • $104.00 • (£80.00)
978-1-4985-3588-5 • eBook • October 2018 • $98.50 • (£76.00)
Abraham Unger is associate professor and director of urban programs in the Department of Government and Politics at Wagner College and senior research fellow at the Carey Institute of Government Reform.
Chapter 1: Is there a Jewish Public Theology?
Chapter 2: A Theology of Stewardship: Tikkun Olam and the Rabbinic Canon
Chapter 3: Covenantal Values and the Post-Global State
Chapter 4: Judaism, Democracy, and the City
Chapter 5: Halakhah and a Global Politics of Cooperation
In this book, Abraham Unger explicates how core values and concepts from Jewish law and tradition can help address the ethical, political, and human crises wreaked by globalization. There are few examples of Jewish public theology, which makes this book a bold and important undertaking.
— Interpretation
Unger’s well situated—possibly uniquely well situated—to have written this book.— The Jewish Standard
A Jewish Public Theology is an outstanding example of the potential of religious wisdom to engage the contemporary state in a productive manner. . . I write this somewhat jealously, as a Christian ecological theologian who desires a better grasp of precisely what Unger excels at—integrating the wisdom of a faith tradition with the actual legislative and policy structures that determine the shape of contemporary life. There is room in Unger’s vision for personal virtue and its role in responsible citizenship in the contemporary world. These insights come from the position of one deeply knowledgeable of Judaism who simultaneously is grounded in the nuts and bolts of the policies and legislation that drive urban landscapes.
— International Journal of Public Theology
Rabbi Abraham Unger brilliantly outlines in this succinct book the scope of a Jewish public theology, one conceived under the shadow of Sinai and its Divine Lawgiver, but still open to humanistic dialogue with other people of faith and even with people of no explicit faith. Not since the days of Abraham Joshua Heschel, Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, and John Courtney Murray has there been such an eloquent spokesperson for political thought enlightened by faith. In a time of worldwide political dyspepsia this book offers an antidote for public hatred and venomous speech. I recommend Unger’s work with the greatest enthusiasm.— Patrick J. Ryan, Fordham University