Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 7 - One Means Everything and Nothing

  • from Part II - How Many “One Gods” Are There?
  • David Michael Grossberg, Cornell University, New York
  • Book:
    The Evolution of Jewish Monotheism
    Published online:
    20 February 2025
    Print publication:
    27 February 2025, pp 242-280

  • Summary

    The modern period saw innovations in Europe that lead directly to contemporary ideas about “God is one,” this chapter’s subject. From an intellectual-historical perspective, modernity is in surprisingly large part a matter of by what methodology and by whose authority the truth or falsity of various types of propositions – moral, philosophical, scientific, or theological – ought be judged. The major trend was that other sources of authority, importantly critical reason, had primacy over tradition. Yet “God is one” remained a stubbornly persistent notion. Even as radical a thinker as Spinoza was committed to it. A more traditionalist modern Jewish perspective sees “God is one” as a “slogan of faith” with no content, not about God but about the religious practitioner’s intentions. Knowledge of God is impossible, but an intention to serve God, even if always beyond human ability to realize, is possible. This aspiration is expressed when declaring, “God is one.”