Toward a History of Jewish Thought: The Soul, Resurrection, and the Afterlife - Paperback

by Zachary Alan Starr (Author)

The work is a history of Jewish beliefs regarding the concept of the soul, the idea of resurrection, and the nature of the afterlife. The work describes these beliefs, accounts for the origin of these beliefs, discusses the ways in which these beliefs have evolved, and explains why the many changes in belief have occurred. Views about the soul, resurrection, and the afterlife are related to other Jewish views and to broad movements in Jewish thought; and Jewish intellectual history is placed within the context of the history of Western thought in general. That history begins with the biblical period and extends to the present time.

Author Biography

Zachary Alan Starr is an adjunct associate professor of philosophy and Jewish thought at Suffolk County Community College in New York where he has taught for fifteen years. He studied philosophy, religion, the history of ideas, and Jewish thought at Colgate University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He also holds a law degree from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.