"You shall have no other gods besides Me." This injunction, handed
down through Moses three thousand years ago, marks one of the most
decisive shifts in Western culture: away from polytheism toward
monotheism. Despite the momentous implications of such a turn, the
role of idolatry in giving it direction and impetus is little
understood. This book examines the meaning and nature of
idolatry--and, in doing so, reveals much about the monotheistic
tradition that defines itself against this sin.
The authors consider Christianity and Islam, but focus primarily
on Judaism. They explore competing claims about the concept of
idolatry that emerges in the Hebrew Bible, as a "whoring after
false gods." Does such a description, grounded in an analogy of
sexual relations, presuppose the actual existence of other gods
with whom someone might sin? Or are false gods the product of
"men's hands," simply a matter of misguided belief? The authors
show how this debate, over idolatry as practice or error, has taken
shape and has in turn shaped the course of Western thought--from
the differentiation between Jewish and Christian conceptions of God
to the distinctions between true and false belief that inform the
tradition of religious enlightenment.
Ranging with authority from the Talmud to Maimonides, from Marx
to Nietzsche and on to G. E. Moore, this brilliant account of a
subject central to our culture also has much to say about metaphor,
myth, and the application of philosophical analysis to religious
concepts and sensibilities. Its insights into pluralism and
intolerance, into the logic and illogic of the arguments religions
aim at each other, make "Idolatry" especially timely and valuable
inthese days of dark and implacable religious difference.
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