Finalist—2003 Benjamin Franklin Award, History, Philosophy and Politics!
Modernity has provided more than enough
reason to give up believing in holiness, still we have learned
that to give up the struggle to achieve it means that we become
less human. As we leave the twentieth century, we discover new
reasons to return to old faith. We rediscover an urgent need to
defend the sacred, even as our understanding differs from our
ancestors. We choose not to retreat from the world, but to
struggle within it, to stain ourselves with sin even as we seek
to establish the good.
—from Chapter 13,
“Humanity”
The cataclysm of the Holocaust seems to
forbid speech. Yet even in the heart of that darkness, sparks
of sacredness were kept alive. From these sparks, Rabbi Edward
Feld suggests, Jews and others can renew a faith and find a
language that recovers the holy even after experiencing the
reign of a Kingdom of Night unimaginable to previous
generations.
In a voice that is engaging, often poetic,
Rabbi Edward Feld helps the modern reader understand events
that span almost 4,000 years of the history of Judaism and the
Jewish people. With rare clarity, insight, and gentleness, he
offers a thought-provoking yet accessible study of the way
tragedy has shaped Jewish history and the self-understanding of
Jews.
The Spirit of Renewal explores four key events that reshaped religious
expression, two ancient and two modern: the Babylonian exile;
the Bar Kochba revolution; the Holocaust; and the establishment
of the State of Israel.
The Spirit of Renewal shows how, even under the most traumatic of
circumstances, Judaism survives, renewing itself and
flourishing again. This profound and wise meditation opens the
way to a powerful new understanding of the nature of God and
the spiritual life
“A meaningful and accessible study
of significant moments where monumental personal and national
trauma would force Jews to think anew about being Jews and
where Judaism would have to learn how to respond. Rabbi Feld
plumbs the classic sources and confronts the issues of our own
generation to bring to bear the weight of Jewish thinking on
these issues.”
—Rabbi
Neil Gillman, associate professor
of philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary; author of The Way Into Enountering God in Judaism
“With scholarship and a prose which
at times borders on tragic poetry, Edward Feld has written a
profound meditation on Jewish history.... Christians, as well
as many others, need to share in this story.”
—The Rt.
Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, PhD, Episcopal
Bishop of Los Angeles
“Undoubtedly the most moving book I
have read.”
—Howard
A. Addison, Conservative Judaism
“[A] rich and evocative
book.”
—Judith
Plaskow, author of Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist
Perspective
“Boldly redefines the landscape of
Jewish religious thought after the Holocaust.”
—Rabbi
Lawrence Kushner, author of Honey from the Rock and
God Was in This Place and I, i Did Not Know
God Was in This Place and I, i Did Not Know
“Adds a new theological voice to our
post-Holocaust turmoil.... Written with intensity, learning,
and ethical awareness. The Spirit
of Renewal gives new hope for
American Jewish theology.”
—Michael
Fishbane, Nathan Cummings
Professor of Jewish Studies,
the Divinity School, University of Chicago
the Divinity School, University of Chicago