Book Summary
The "German Socrates," Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was the most influential Jewish thinker of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A Berlin celebrity and a major figure in the Enlightenment, revered by Immanuel Kant, Mendelssohn suffered the indignities common to Jews of his time while formulating the philosophical foundations of a modern Judaism suited for a new age. His most influential books included the groundbreaking "Jerusalem" and a translation of the Bible into German that paved the way for generations of Jews to master the language of the larger culture. Feiner's book is the first that offers a full, human portrait of this fascinating man--uncommonly modest, acutely aware of his task as an intellectual pioneer, shrewd, traditionally Jewish, yet thoroughly conversant with the world around him--providing a vivid sense of Mendelssohn's daily life as well as of his philosophical endeavors. Feiner, a leading scholar of Jewish intellectual history, examines Mendelssohn as father and husband, as a friend (Mendelssohn's long-standing friendship with the German dramatist Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was seen as a model for Jews and non-Jews worldwide), as a tireless advocate for his people, and as an equally indefatigable spokesman for the paramount importance of intellectual independence.
Book Details
| Book Name | Moses Mendelssohn: Sage Of Modernity |
| Author | Shmuel Feiner, Anthony Berris |
| Publisher | Yale University Press (Nov 2010) |
| ISBN | 9780300161755 |
| Pages | 237 |
| Language | English |
| Price | 911 |
