Théologie

Systematic Jewish theology is born in the orbit of the Islamic world. It is in Baghdad, at the heart of the Abbasid caliphate, that Saadia ben Joseph al-Fayyoumi, gaon of the academy of Soura, writes in Arabic around 933 the Kitāb al-Amānāt wa'l-Iʿtiqādāt — the Book of Beliefs and Opinions — considered the first work of philosophical theology in Judaism [Encyclopaedia Judaica].

Saadia's enterprise is twofold: to refute the objections of skeptics and sects, and to demonstrate that revelation and reason, far from opposing each other, converge. He borrows from Muslim Kalam, in particular from the Mutazilite school, its method of rational argumentation on divine unity and justice. Saadia defends there the creation of the world from nothingness, the absolute uniqueness of God, human freedom and retributive justice. His work inaugurates a genre: that of the treatise which puts in order the articles of faith and submits them to the examination of reason. It also marks an institutional turning point, for it emanates from a recognized gaonic authority, which gives it considerable weight in subsequent transmission.

In Muslim Spain, another path opens: that of inner piety. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda, rabbinical judge in Saragossa toward the end of the eleventh century, composed in Arabic the Kitāb al-Hidāya ilā Farāʾiḍ al-Qulūb — translated under the title The Duties of the Heart (Ḥovot ha-Levavot). The work distinguishes between the "duties of the members," that is, commandments fulfilled externally, and the "duties of the heart," which pertain to intention, inner disposition, and love of God.

Georges Vajda demonstrated how this work unites a theology of divine unity, inherited from Kalam and Neoplatonism, with a genuine spiritual asceticism inspired in part by Muslim Sufism [Georges Vajda, The Ascetic Theology of Bahya ibn Paquda, 1947]. The treatise opens with a rational demonstration of God's unity, then guides the faithful, degree by degree, toward self-examination, humility, renunciation, and love. Its impact was immense: translated into Hebrew by Juda ibn Tibbon in 1161, The Duties of the Heart became one of the most widely read devotional books of Judaism, far beyond philosophical circles. It testifies that medieval Jewish theology was not merely speculative, but also a pedagogy of inner life.

The apex of medieval Jewish philosophical theology bears a name: Moïse ben Maïmon, Maimonides, born in Cordova and established in Fostat, near Cairo, where he practiced as a physician and leader of the community. Around 1190, he completed in Arabic the Dalālat al-Ḥāʾirīn — the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevoukhim) — addressed to a disciple torn between fidelity to the Law and the demands of Aristotelian philosophy [Encyclopaedia Judaica].

Maimonides develops in it a rigorous negative theology: of God, nothing can be affirmed positively, for any positive attribute would compromise his absolute unity; one can only set aside what he is not. He reinterprets biblical anthropomorphisms, expounds a doctrine of providence, addresses the question of creation in the face of the eternity of the world upheld by Aristotle, and proposes a hierarchy of perfections culminating in the knowledge of God. Elsewhere, in his commentary on the Mishna, he had formulated the thirteen principles of faith, which became the closest sketch of a creed in Judaism. The work provoked lasting controversies — the "Maimonidean controversies" divided communities in the thirteenth century — proof that it touched the very heart of the definition of Judaism itself.

Beside the rational path unfolds a theology of an entirely different order: that of Kabbalah. Nourished by the Zohar, a work attributed by tradition to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohaï but whose scholarly research places its composition in thirteenth-century Castile, kabbalistic thought elaborates a doctrine of sefirot — the ten emanations through which the hidden Infinite (Ein Sof) manifests itself and acts in the world.

This theology reaches its apex in Safed, in Galilee, in the sixteenth century, with Isaac Louria. His doctrine of tsimtsum — God's voluntary withdrawal to make room for creation —, of the "breaking of the vessels" and of tikkun — the cosmic repair entrusted to humanity — offers a bold response to the question of evil and that of exile. Here, archival material and tradition answer one another: manuscripts and catalogues attest to the existence and teaching of Louria, while oral transmission and the later written records of his disciples, foremost among whom Hayim Vital, form a corpus where the documented and the received intertwine. Lurianic theology would durably nourish Jewish spirituality, from Sabbateanism to Hasidism.

The modern era reopens the theological question in a critical form. In Amsterdam, Baruch Spinoza, excluded from his community in 1656, develops in the Theological-Political Treatise (1670) a radical critique of revelation and scriptural authority, and a conception of God identified with the unique substance, Nature. Without claiming to be a Jewish theologian, he compels theology to redefine itself in the face of nascent scientific reason.

A century later, in Berlin, Moses Mendelssohn, major figure of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, seeks in Jerusalem (1783) to reconcile belonging to Judaism and the Enlightenment ideal. He defines Judaism not as a "revealed religion" in the dogmatic sense, but as a revealed legislation compatible with a rational natural religion, leaving conscience free in matters of belief. This position shifts theology from the terrain of metaphysics toward that of ethics and law, and prepares the great reconfigurations of the nineteenth century: Reform Judaism, the Wissenschaft des Judentums and debates over the place of the Law in modern life.

The twentieth century witnesses the rebirth of an ambitious Jewish theology, in dialogue and in tension with German philosophy. In Marburg, Hermann Cohen, founder of the Neo-Kantian school, dedicates his final work, The Religion of Reason Drawn from the Sources of Judaism (posthumous, 1919), to demonstrating that Jewish ethical monotheism offers the very model of a religion of reason, centered on the correlation between God and man and on the messianic ideal of justice.

After him, Franz Rosenzweig breaks with idealism in The Star of Redemption (1921), a thought of creation, revelation and redemption articulated as lived experience rather than as a system. Martin Buber, with I and Thou (1923), places dialogical encounter at the heart of the relationship to God. After the Shoah, Jewish theology confronts the most grave trial in its history: the question of the presence or absence of the divine in the face of absolute evil, debated notably by Emil Fackenheim, Hans Jonas and Emmanuel Levinas, whose thought makes ethical responsibility toward the other the very trace of the infinite. Contemporary Jewish theology thus remains an open endeavor, shared between fidelity to tradition and confrontation with the ruptures of the century.

Saadia Gaon (882–942) — סעדיה גאון. Born in Upper Egypt, gaon of the academy of Soura near Baghdad, he was one of the greatest masters of the gaonic period. Translator of the Bible into Arabic, grammarian and polemicist, he composed around 933 the Book of Beliefs and Opinions, the first great treatise of Jewish philosophical theology. In it he defended the accord of reason and revelation by drawing inspiration from Mutazilite Kalam. His institutional authority gave his work lasting diffusion [Encyclopaedia Judaica].

Bahya ibn Paquda (second half of the eleventh century, exact dates unknown) — בחיי אבן פקודה. Rabbinical judge in Saragossa, in Muslim Spain, he is the author of the Duties of the Heart, written in Arabic. Combining theology of divine unity, Neoplatonism and asceticism inspired by Sufism, he made inner life the proper place of service to God. Georges Vajda devoted to his thought a definitive study [Georges Vajda, The Ascetic Theology of Bahya ibn Paquda, 1947]. His treatise became a classic of Jewish devotion.

Maimonides (c. 1138–1204) — משה בן מימון, Moses ben Maimon. Born in Córdoba, physician and leader of the community in Fostat, he dominated medieval Jewish thought. Codifier of law in the Mishneh Torah, he composed around 1190 the Guide for the Perplexed, the pinnacle of negative theology and Jewish Aristotelianism. His thirteen principles of faith remain the formulation closest to a creed in Judaism. His work provoked vigorous controversies in the thirteenth century [Encyclopaedia Judaica].

Isaac Luria (1534–1572) — יצחק לוריא, called the Ari. Born in Jerusalem, active in Safed in Galilee, he profoundly renewed mystical theology through his doctrines of tzimtzum, the breaking of the vessels and tikkun. He wrote almost nothing himself: his teaching was transmitted and written down by his disciples, notably Hayim Vital. His Kabbalah left a lasting mark on Jewish spirituality down to Hasidism.

Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) — משה מנדלסון. Philosopher of the Berlin Enlightenment, central figure of the Haskalah, he sought in Jerusalem to reconcile Judaism and reason. He defined Judaism as revealed legislation compatible with natural religion, leaving conscience free. Translator of the Torah into German, he opened the way to the religious transformations of modern Judaism.

Hermann Cohen (1842–1918). Founder of the Neo-Kantian school of Marburg, he devoted his final work, The Religion of Reason Drawn from the Sources of Judaism, to demonstrating that Jewish ethical monotheism embodies the religion of reason. His thought of the correlation between God and man and his messianic ideal of justice exerted lasting influence on twentieth-century Jewish theology.

Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929). German thinker, author of The Star of Redemption, he broke with idealism in favor of an existential thought articulating creation, revelation and redemption. His return to Judaism and his pedagogical work at the Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus in Frankfurt marked the spiritual renewal of his time.

The history of Jewish theology reads as a succession of responses to concrete situations. Born from the encounter with Muslim Kalam in Baghdad, systematized in Spain, brought to its speculative summit by Maimonides, it doubled itself with a mystical path in Safed, then had to reinvent itself in the face of modern criticism and the catastrophes of the twentieth century. What strikes one in traversing this itinerary is the constancy of a fruitful tension between reason and revelation, between discourse on God and life before God, between system and experience. Judaism never froze this reflection into a single dogma; it left it alive, plural, disputed. This is perhaps its most enduring theological legacy: to have made the question of God not a point of arrival, but a path always reopened.