Concept
Jewish Kalam
Overview
Jewish Kalam was an early medieval style of Jewish philosophy that evolved in response to Kalam in Islam which, in turn, was a reaction against Aristotelianism.
The term "Jewish Kalam" is used by modern historians, but is not a term by which Jewish thinkers designated themselves. In all likelihood, they were simply known by the Arabic term Mutakallimūn "Kalamists", as they are referred to by Maimonides and other Jewish writers.
The best known practitioner of Jewish Kalam was Saadia Gaon, and Jewish Kalam represented the philosophical battlefield upon which Saadia attacked the proponents of Karaite Judaism. Maimonides in his The Guide for the Perplexed frequently references and disputes positions of Kalam, both Jewish and Muslim, and in general conveys an opinion of Kalam that is highly uncomplimentary. Judah Halevi also makes reference to Jewish followers of the Kalam but mentions only Karaite Jews.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
And the Greek name of this faculty is derived from the use of the term συνιέναι in learning: μανθάνειν and συνιέναι being often used as synonymous. The faculty called γνώμη,[40] in right of which we call men εὐγνώμονες, or say they have γνώμη, is “the right judgment of the equitable man.” A proof of which is that we most commonly say that the equitable man has a tendency to make allowance, and the making allowance…
Aristotle, The Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle
States what Jewish Kalam is; the author is tied to Jewish Kalam in the knowledge graph.
It seems neither now nor very lately to have been known [1329b] to those philosophers who have made politics their study, that a city ought to be divided by families into different orders of men; and that the husbandmen and soldiers should be kept separate from each other; which custom is even to this day preserved in Egypt and in Crete; also Sesostris having founded it in Egypt, Minos in Crete. Common meals seem…
Aristotle, Politics
The author is tied to Jewish Kalam in the knowledge graph.
28:3; and as angels are also described by the Psalmist, when he says, "Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire," Ps. 104:4. And again, it is said, Luke 2:9, "That when the angel of the Lord came to the shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about them." Of the same description also was the countenance of Christ at his transfiguration on Mount Tabor, of whom it is said, "And his face did…
Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1
States what Jewish Kalam is.
Philosophers who discussed Jewish Kalam
Related ideas
- The Guide for the Perplexed
- Fustat
- Bahya ibn Paquda
- Moses ibn Ezra
- Jewish philosophy
- Saadia Gaon
- Mu'tazilism
- Creatio ex nihilo
- Maimonides
- Kalam
- Aristotle
- Aristotelianism
- Toledo, Spain
- Judah Halevi
- Al-Andalus
- Causality
- Kairouan
- Baghdad
- Basra
- Islam
- Karaite Judaism
- Arabic
- Pumbedita
- Sura Academy
Place in the tradition
Part of Jewish philosophy.