An Introduction to Jewish Ethics

This is a model introduction: accessible, engaging, and bearing the marks of wide learning. Those unfamiliar with Jewish ethics will find that it takes nothing for granted; those already familiar will also gain much from the clear and searching way it addresses an impressive range of subjects. It is a most valuable and welcome work. - Gene Outka, Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics, Yale University

For too long scholars of religious ethics have lacked a basic text in Jewish ethics. Louis E. Newman has rewarded our patience with a volume that is learned, engaging, balanced, and comprehensive. Surveying biblical, rabbinical, and modern Jewish thought and history, An Introduction to Jewish Ethics provides a wonderful overview of Judaism's moral sources. Newman introduces the reader to methodological issues in religious ethics, central themes and practices in Judaism, and influential thinkers in classical and contemporary Jewish thought. With clarity and grace, he covers a range of issues that inform Jewish tradition: revelation and reason, scripture and commentary, tradition and modernity, worldview and ethos. He also provides a sampling of Jewish thinking regarding sexuality, abortion, and war. Students of Judaism, religious ethics, and moral theory will find this book essential reading. - Richard B. Miller, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Director, Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions, Indiana University

Louis E. Newman is the Joan M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies and the Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.