To propogate the invention of writing, the Sumerians established scribal schools which preserved and transmitted the accumulated wisdom of the past, usually in poetic form. The literature thus created has been studied by the author for half a century. His conclusions, often also important for biblicists, are here assembled in one volume for the first time.

The Star of Redemption is widely recognized as a key document of modern existential thought and a significant contribution to Jewish theology in the twentieth century. An affirmation of what Rosenzweig called "the new thinking," the work ensconces common sense in the place of abstract, conceptual philosophizing and posits the validity of the concrete, individual human being over that of "humanity" in general. Fusing philosophy and theology, it assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world, and finds in both biblical religions approaches toward a comprehension of reality.

Eleven essays explore the ways in which the contextual approach to the study of biblical literature provides both insightful and illuminating parallels between biblical and extrabiblical sources, as well as recognizing the implications of significant differences.

The Classical Moment is a reexamination of the concept of a supreme moment in the literatures of Greece, Mesopotamia, India, China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Taking the case of Greece as its starting point, it examines what such "moments" have in common, how they are created, and what effect they have on subsequent literary creation.

"Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption is one of the few lasting books of our century, a work whose originality transcends the disciplinary limits of philosophy and religion, and which must be read by anyone whose concern with the meaning of daily life is urgent and abiding". -- Maurice Natanson, Yale University

The Star of Redemption is widely recognized as a key document modern existential thought and a significant contribution to wish theology in the twentieth century. An affirmation of what Rosenzweig called "the new thinking", the work ensconces common sense in the place of abstract, conceptual philosophizing and posits the validity of the concrete, individual human being over that of "humanity" in general.

Fusing philosophy and theology, it assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world, and finds in both biblical religions approaches toward a comprehension of reality.

Resuming the anti-Hegelian revolt of Schopenhauer, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, Rosenzweig repudiates the attempt by German idealism to reduce to one essence the three elements of reality: God, the world, and man. In The Star of Redemption, he sets forth a system in which these elements are shown to be independent, irreducible from each other, and linked through the "paths" of creation, revelation, and redemption.