Judaism and Environmental Ethics
A Reader
Contributions by E. John B. Allen, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Vice President of American, Jeremy Benstein, Philip J. Bentley, J David Bleich, Gerald Blidstein, Jeremy Cohen, David Ehrenfeld, Joan G. Ehrenfeld, Hans Jonas, Leon R. Kass, Eric Katz New Jersey Institute of Technology, Jeanne Kay, Aldo Leopold, Ze'ev Levy, Eric Rosenblum, RobertD Sacks, Arthur Schaeffer, Eilon Schwartz, Steven S. Schwarzschild, Lawrence Troster, Michael Wyschogrod Edited by Martin D. Yaffe
Publication date:
06 June 2001Length of book:
432 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
232x162mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780739101179
Martin D. Yaffe's Judaism and Environmental Ethics: A Reader is a well-conceived exploration of three interrelated questions: Does the Hebrew Bible, or subsequent Jewish tradition, teach environmental responsibility or not? What Jewish teachings, if any, appropriately address today's environmental crisis? Do ecology, Judaism, and philosophy work together, or are they at odds with each other in confronting the current crisis? Yaffe's extensive introduction analyzes and appraises the anthologized essays, each of which serves to deepen and enrich our understanding of current reflection on Judaism and environmental ethics. Brought together in one volume for the first time, the most important scholars in the field touch on diverse disciplines including deep ecology, political philosophy, and biblical hermeneutics. This ambitious book illustrates—precisely because of its interdisciplinary focus—how longstanding disagreements and controversies may spark further interchange among ecologists, Jews, and philosophers. Both accessible and thoroughly scholarly, this dialogue will benefit anyone interested in ethical and religious considerations of contemporary ecology.
For decades Judaic environmental ethics has stood in the shadow of unfruitful debates about Christian responsibility for the environmental crisis. This collection puts those debates into perspective and begins the discussion of Jewish environmental philosophy in its own right, by bringing together materials that would otherwise be difficult to obtain, if not unavailable, to most readers of the book. It provides the best starting point for anyone, researchers and laypersons alike, interested in learning more about this important subfield within environmental philosophy.