Reviving Jewish Theology

In this study, Steven Kepnes constructs a 'positive' Jewish theology, one that gives expression to God's nature and powers and that opposes 'apophatic' Holocaust and postmodern theologies that deny the ability of language to express God's nature.Drawing from the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Jewish prayer, Kepnes also uses methods frommedieval philosophy, analytic philosophy, andhermeneutics.From medievalphilosophy and the Bible, Kepnesdevelopswhat he callsa 'soft' metaphysics with principles of God and the revealed Torah at its center. Identifying a fundamental contradiction between the transcendent God of philosophy and the personal God of the Bible, hedemonstrateshow analytic philosophy, Jewish hermeneutics, and Jewish liturgy offer constructive strategies to negotiate this contradiction.Kepnes alsoargues that Jewish theology can neither remain in the domain of metaphysics nor the nature of God, but must turn toward thepractical and ethical.Heconcludes with a call for a prophetic theological ethics to address the pressing issue of climate change.