Modern Hebrew Literature and the Divine

FAIN: FT-61773-14

Neta Stahl
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD 21218-2608)

The common scholarly assumption regarding modern Hebrew literature is that it defied Jewish Orthodoxy and rejected the Hebrew God. Against this perception and the artificial dichotomy that it sets up between religious and secular literature, I argue that many modern Hebrew writers maintained a vital and intense dialogue with the divine. In order to uncover this dialogue, I trace the way these writers engaged with key theological themes, such as pantheism, the question of divine justice, and the notion that man is created in God's image. I show how modern Hebrew writers employed in their works traditional Jewish elements while offering a more contemporary understanding of the divine. Over the past two decades, the nature of modernity and, indeed, of secularism itself, has often been questioned and challenged in various disciplines within the humanities. Because modern Hebrew literature is located at the margins of European modernism, it offers a unique perspective on this debate.

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