Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham

295 Pages·2003·1.12 MB·English

by  Thomas L. Pangle

Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham

Political Philosophy
and the God of Abraham
thomas l. pangle
the johns hopkins university press
Baltimore and London
∫ 2003 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2003
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pangle, Thomas L.
Political philosophy and the God of Abraham / Thomas L. Pangle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8018-7328-2 (alk. paper)
1. Politics in the Bible. 2. Bible. O.T. Genesis—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
I. Title.
BS1199.P6 P36 2003
222%.110832—dc21
2002013973
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Frontispiece: Rembrandt van Rijn. Abraham and Isaac. Etching and burin, 1645.
Rosenwald Collection. Photograph ∫ 2002 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of
Art, Washington.
To Lorraine
You who consider that you understand a book that is the guide of the first and
the last men while glancing through it as you would glance through a historical
work or a piece of poetry: collect yourselves and reflect, for things are not as you
thought.
Maimonides Guide of the Perplexed 1.2
So We commanded you to follow
The way of Abraham the upright;
Call them to the path,
And reason with them in the best way possible.
Al-Qur’an 16.123–25
The human being is only a reed, the most feeble in nature; but this is a thinking
reed. It isn’t necessary for the entire universe to arm itself in order to crush him;
a whi√ of vapor, a taste of water, su≈ces to kill him. But when the universe
crushes him, the human being becomes still more noble than that which kills
him, because he knows that he is dying, and the advantage that the universe has
over him. The universe, it does not have a clue.
All our dignity consists, then, in thought. This is the basis on which we must
raise ourselves, and not space and time, which we would not know how to fill.
Let us make it our task, then, to think well: here is the principle of morality.
Pascal, Pensées, #200
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
chapter one
The Twofold Account of Creation: and the Hermeneutical Problem 17
chapter two
Creation and the Meaning of Divine Omnipotence 29
chapter three
The Ontological Implications of the Unfolding of Creation,
for Creatures and Creator 48
chapter four
Creation and Divine Solicitude for Mankind 58
chapter five
Creation and the Meaning of Good and Evil 71
chapter six
Pollution and Purgation 103
chapter seven
Abram from the Calling to the Covenant 127
chapter eight
Abraham at the Peak 154
chapter nine
Kierkegaard’s Challenge 172
Conclusion 182
Notes 185
Works Cited 265
Index 279
Acknowledgments
For financial support during the years when I worked on this
book, I wish to express my gratitude to the Lynde and Harry Bradley
Foundation, the Connaught Fund of the University of Toronto, the So-
cial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the Carl Friedrich von Siemens
Institute in Munich, where I spent a very profitable year as Fellow.
An earlier version of parts of chapters 1 and 2 appears as ‘‘Political
Philosophy’s Response to the Challenge of Creation: An Essay in Honor
of Wilson Carey McWilliams,’’ in Friends and Citizens: Essays in Honor of
Wilson Carey McWilliams, edited by Peter Dennis Bathory and Nancy L.
Schwartz (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 13–43.
Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham