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A partial (ran out time) "God" bibliography of books I could lend -- Virginia, 5/21/06

Dorff, Elliott N. and Louis E. Newman, eds. Contemporary Jewish Theology: A Reader.
NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Very useful to get an overview of Jewish theological thought over the last 100 years or so. Fairly inexpensive paperback compendium of book excerpts and articles from Buber, Kaplan, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Soloveitchik, etc.;Adler, Falk, Plaskow; and others.

Includes selections from the amazing Rabbi Isaac Kook -- who taught that any idea of "God" can become and idol, because if you think you know what/who God is, you're worshipping a human idea, instead of the ineffable God -- whose writings I have not found easily accessible elsewhere: there are English publications of "his thought," but not so much his actual words

I got my copy at the Jewish Bookstore (in Wheaton) and think it's still available.

Jewish Theology: Background readings.
This is a two volume, comb-bound set of readings from a Jewish Theology course I took through the Spertus Institute in Chicago. Includes a number of authors NOT in the collection above.
This is not available, except as course materials, but I'm happy to lend it to anyone who'd like to pursue readings from Max Kadushin, Lawrence Fine, Nahum Sarna, Gershom Scholem, Louis Jacobs, and Byron Sherwin (the course instructor and author of some interesting pieces on Jewish theology.)

Partners with God and Living as Partners with God (Berhman House. Gila Gevirtz, ed.)
These are Hebrew-school-type texts (I don't know if Micah's Hebrew school uses them -- if so, lots of parents probably already know them). Although meant for youngsters, these books introduce all the basic questions -- How we know God, where we find God, what it means to be "in God's image," etc. I found them very helpful myself, both in discussing these topics with my kids and in clarifying basic ideas in Jewish theology.
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Adler, Rachel. Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics. Philadelphia: JPS, 1998.
The early chapters of this book emphasize the importance of story to Judaism and, therefore, the importance of finding or creating new stories that include women. Later chapters deal with more specific issues in Jewish worship and marriage. Has a lot to say about gender and our view of God. This book sometimes reads like the dissertation on which it is based; patience with academic jargon and unnecessary repetition is rewarded, though, IMO: I think this is a powerful book.

Amichai, Yehuda. "Gods Change, Prayers Are Here to Stay" in Open Closed Open.
Translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld. NY: Harcourt 2000.
Many of the works in Open Closed Open, and some of Amichai's other poems, have theological themes, but "Gods Change..." is an extended piece of poetic theology.

Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Long and dense, but very thorough and useful examination of how western civilization has tried to understand "God." Includes discussion of how people create their own sense of God. Lots of fantastic end-notes and a thorough bibliography.

The Future of God: The Reclaiming of Spirituality's Mystical Roots.
Audio tape following up on themes in the final chapter of A History of God. I'm happy to lend this out.

Buber, Martin. I and Thou. [1938] Translated by Waler Kaufman.
NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970.
I find this impenetrable, but the idea clearly influenced 20th Century ideas of God. I know very few people who made it through this volume, so I can't exactly recommend it -- but don't let that stop you! (There's an excerpt in the Theology reader cited above.)

Buber's letters, including an extensive correspondence with Franz Rosenzweig, are readable and fascinating. Eclipse of God is a little more readable than I and Thou.

Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion.
NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951.
Although written in prose and in English -- Heschel's third or fourth language, after Yiddish and German (not sure if he knew Polish or other European languages) -- this is a very poetic examination of the human-God relationship. Some readers object to the lack of "logical argument," but I read it as more of a personal exploration. Few footnotes. No citations.

God in Search of Man. Philadelphia: JPS, 1959.
Similar themes to Man is Not Alone but more specifically Jewish and a little more "academic" in tone. Includes citations and footnotes.

Also: Heschel's two volume work on The Prophets (originally his dissertation, which he updated and translated to English during the Civil Rights movement in the US in the 60s) is very much about God and how we understand what God expects of us.

The Ineffable Name of God: Man is a bilingual Yiddish-English book of poetry with theological themes.

Kadushin, Max. Worship and Ethics: A Study in Rabbinic Judaism. NY: Block Publishing, 1963.
Also The Rabbinic Mind and Organic Thinking
I like Worship and Ethics best (I believe it's later than the other two and a bit clearer in presentation) of the three. Kadushin -- uniquely, I think -- creates a language for Jewish theology that differs from the Platonic concept about how things are either one way or another.

Rosenzweig, Franz. The Star of Redemption. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970.
As a whole, a bit too much IMO, although not nearly as impenetrable as Buber's I and Thou. Contains interesting ideas about how the various daily prayer services reflect different aspects of our relationship to God.
Rosenzweig's letters and short articles have a higher "interesting idea/page" ratio. Franz Rosenweig: His Life and Thought. edited by Nahum Glatzer (NY: Schocken, 1953) contains great stuff, but I don't know if it's still in print. I have a copy inscribed with Nancy Lang's name that I got from the Micah library discard shelves, and I'm happy to lend it.

Wolpe, David. In Speech and in Silence: The Jewish Quest for God. NY: Henry Holt, 1992.
A moving book that makes theology personal.

Not exactly "theological" throughout, but useful: Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish
Feminism. Danya Ruttenberg, ed. Seattle: Seal Press, 2001.