Human Nature and Jewish Thought: Judaism’s Case for Why Persons Matter

Out of the confrontation between traditional biblical and rabbinic Jewish views of human personhood and modern secular ones, Mittleman (A Short History of Jewish Ethics), a professor of philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, has crafted a cogent rationalist stance that incorporates modern neurological and psychosocial findings as well as the moral implications of the teaching that each human being is created in the image of God. Along the way, Mittleman reviews the relationship between traditional Jewish views of the nature and moral status of personhood with other ancient views of the soul or self. He explores why human beings may differ in status from other animals and other non-persons, and why the principles arising from the idea of “the image of God” need not be thrown out by secularist thinkers or those who give priority to scientific description. He also tackles the age-old question of free will, balancing belief in an omnipotent and omniscient deity with the primacy of human nature or neurology in determining human behavior. This concise and accessible exploration of personhood and its moral and spiritual implications will appeal to religious and secular thinkers, Jewish or otherwise. (May)