David in Medieval Jewish Thought: Judah Halevi’s Book of the Kuzari as a Reconciliation Project (original) (raw)

Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King: The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

One of the most complex and ambivalent characters in the Bible is King David. Traditionally considered to be the pious author of the book of Psalms, a brave warrior and a perfect ruler, he was also a vassal of the Philistine king and a sinner whose morally dubious behaviour is criticized in the Bible itself. Little wonder, therefore, that his image underwent significant interpretative changes in perception and reception in different monotheistic traditions. So far, scholarly research has mostly focused on the ways he was appropriated by some of these traditions in isolation from others. The proposed conference will question this dominant exclusive approach and attempt to scrutinize perceptions and receptions of King David and his book in different monotheistic traditions from late antiquity until the early modern period in a more inclusive fashion. Its aim is to take a new, critical look at the process of biblical creation and subsequent exegetical transformation of this figure, with particular emphasis put on the multilateral fertilization and cross-cultural interchanges among Jews, Christians and Muslims in different genres of their respective religious literatures and arts.

What each did with the David they inherited: The Sanitizing of Davi

The Bible depicts King David as a deeply flawed, unsavory character, the perpetrator of evil acts including: murder, insurrection, adultery, banditry, and extortion. The sanitizing of David’s character during the following centuries and millennia created an image that idolizes him as the paragon of virtue, closely associated with the promised Messiah. This Study identifies the Davidic sanitizing process.

The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167–1900

The American Historical Review, 2009

Judah Halevi's Book of the Kuzari is a defense of Judaism that has enjoyed an almost continuous transmission since its composition in the twelfth century. By surveying the activities of readers, commentators, copyists, and printers for more than 700 years, Adam Shear examines the ways that the Kuzari became a classic of Jewish thought. Today, the Kuzari is usually understood as the major statement of an antirationalist and ethnocentric approach to Judaism and is often contrasted with the rationalism and universalism of Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed. But this conception must be seen as a modern construction, and the reception history of the Kuzari demonstrates that many earlier readers of the work understood it as offering a way toward reconciling reason and faith and of negotiating between particularism and universalism. Adam Shear teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is editor of the English edition of The Historical Writings of Joseph of Rosheim (2006) and is currently co-editing a volume on the history of the early modern Jewish book.