Library Book Talk: Aaron Koller on Unbinding Isaac: The Significance of the Akedah for Modern Jewish Thought

Abstract

Unbinding Isaac takes readers on a trek of discovery to insight into the binding of Isaac story for our times. The early nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard viewed the biblical story as teaching of suspension of ethics for the sake of faith, and in the twentieth century Jewish thinkers developed this idea as a cornerstone of their religious worldview. Koller examines and critiques Kierkegaard’s perspective—and later incarnations of it—on textual, religious, and ethical grounds. He also explores the current of criticism of Abraham in Jewish thought, from ancient poems and midrashim to contemporary Israel narratives, as well as some of the many ways Jews have responded to the Akedah over the generations. (from Publisher website)