The Exalted Faith

Cranbury, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. 406, [2] pages. Oversized volume, measuring 8-1/2 inches by 11-1/4 inches. DJ has some wear to top edge. Some damp impact at top fore-edge of some pages. Review slip laid in. This is one of the Sara F. Yoseloff Memorial Publications In Judaism and Jewish Affairs. Text is in English with some Hebrew. Includes List of Rabbinic References, Translator's Foreword, and Editor's Foreword. Book 1 covers Presuppositions in Aristotelian Natural Science and the Order of the Universe; Book 2 covers Basic Principles of the Faith; or Religious Law of the Jewish People; Book 3 covers Practical Philosophy (The Healing of the Soul). Also contains Hebrew Text of The Exalted Faith, Glossary, and Bibliography. Abraham ibn Daud was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher; born at Cordoba, Spain about 1110; died in Toledo, Spain, according to common report, a martyr about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I. Ibn Daud was the first to introduce the phase of Jewish philosophy which is generally attributed to Maimonides and which differs from former systems of philosophy mainly in its more thorough systematic form derived from Aristotle. Accordingly, Hasdai Crescas mentions Ibn Daud as the only Jewish philosopher among the predecessors of Maimonides. But having been completely overshadowed by Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, Abraham ibn Daud's Emunah Ramah ("Sublime Faith"), a work to which Maimonides himself was indebted for many valuable suggestions, received scant notice from later philosophers. The stated purpose of this book is to reconcile philosophy and religion and to solve the problem of human choice and determinism. This is the first work by a Jewish philosopher to use Aristotelian language and thought to explain the principal commitment of Jewish religious faith. The topics discussed include issues in physics, psychology, astronomy, religious belief, prophecy and diving providence, epistemology, theology, and ethics and religious practice. This critical edition contains the complete Solomon Ben Labi Hebrew translation of the lost, original Arabic text as well as the English translation prepared by Norbert Samuelson and Gershon Weiss. Samuelson has also written an introduction to each section of the work, and has provided a glossary of basic, technical Hebrew terms. The comprehensiveness and clarity of the work make this text an excellent introduction for students who wish to begin study in this area of philosophy and Jewish studies. Samuelson and Weiss present a critical edition and English translation of Solomon Ben Labi's Hebrew translation of the lost, original Arabic text of Abraham Ibn Daud's The Exalted Faith. Ibn Daud was the first Jewish philosopher to use Aristotelian language and thought to explain the principal commitments of Jewish religious faith. His monumental effort, written in 1160, has been preserved in this, his sole work of philosophy. Abraham ibn Daud's importance lies in the fact that he was the first to present a coherent systematic interpretation of Judaism in light of the new challenge, namely Muslim Aristotelianism. The sustained use of Aristotelian doctrines and logical reasoning clearly distinguishes ER from the writings of earlier Jewish philosophers. Moreover, the manner in which he incorporates his Muslim (and to a lesser extent) Jewish sources in a carefully structured system in order to solve a religious problem is noteworthy. His thought develops along the following lines: substance-form - motion and transition from potentiality into actuality-soul - God-intelligences-prophet-freedom of the will-correspondence between correct knowledge and correct conduct-perfection.