{"id":560,"date":"2024-09-09T12:19:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T12:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/etienne-gilson-on-the-jewish-philosophers-he-knew\/"},"modified":"2024-09-09T12:19:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T12:19:42","slug":"etienne-gilson-on-the-jewish-philosophers-he-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/etienne-gilson-on-the-jewish-philosophers-he-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9tienne Gilson on the Jewish Philosophers He Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c9tienne Gilson (1884-1978) writing in 1962 about his experiences as a student at the Sorbonne circa 1900:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

. . . instead of resorting to philosophy for a better understanding of their religious faith, as Christian philosophers do, the Jews I have known have used philosophy to liberate themselves from their religion. Christians philosophize to  identify themselves more intimately with their Christianity; our masters philosophized in order to run away from the synagogue. The illustrious example of Spinoza is a typical instance of what I mean. After the Theologico-Political Treatise<\/em>, written as a farewell to the Law, its commands and it rites, came the Ethica<\/em>, whose purpose was to create a mental universe in which reason was liberated from all contact with any religious revelation, Jewish or Christian. It would seem that the philosophical conversion of such children of Israel consists in turning their backs on their religion. (The Philosopher and Theology<\/em>, Cluny Media, 2020, p. 6)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gilson is of course speaking of his experiences with his teachers at the Sorbonne circa 1900. What he says, however, suggests a follow-up question I am not competent to answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider Jews of all times and places who (i) became professional philosophers and who (ii) were brought up in Judaism and who (iii) have used philosophy to liberate themselves from their religion.  Is their number greater than the number of cradle Christians who became professional philosophers and then used philosophy to liberate themselves from their religion?  My guess is the answer is in the affirmative.  If so, why?<\/span><\/p>\n

We can ask a parallel question about Muslims. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c9tienne Gilson (1884-1978) writing in 1962 about his experiences as a student at the Sorbonne circa 1900: . . . instead of resorting to philosophy for a better understanding of their religious faith, as Christian philosophers do, the Jews I have known have used philosophy to liberate themselves from their religion. Christians philosophize to  identify … Continue reading “\u00c9tienne Gilson on the Jewish Philosophers He Knew”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[331,66,264,332],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athens-and-jerusalem","category-faith-and-reason","category-gilson-etienne","category-jewish-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}