New book by Prof. James Diamond

Monday, March 8, 2021
Reinventing Maimonides

Congratulations to our faculty member, James Diamond, on his recently published book entitled Reinventing Maimonides in Contemporary Jewish Thought (Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization/Liverpool University Press, 2019), coauthored with Menachem Kellner. Jim is the Director of the Jewish Studies Program and holds the Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Chair in Jewish Studies. The book is now available in the University of Waterloo Library as an electronic resource. See here.

Diamond and Kellner argue that no Jewish thinker since the twelfth century has escaped the influence of Maimonides. Many rabbis have interpreted and re-interpreted Maimonides in novel ways. But, they ask, how well did they really understand him?

From the book blurb

'Carefully and convincingly, Diamond and Kellner show that Maimonides’ written words were repeatedly appropriated by Jewish religious thinkers in the 20th century to promote theological positions that Maimonides would never have subscribed to.'
Martin Lockshin, The Canadian Jewish News

‘A remarkable contribution to Maimonides scholarship.’
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen, The Algemeiner