Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association

Volume 86, 2012

Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions

Visions, Verities, and Voices
The Love of God and the Pursuit of Wisdom in the Medieval Jewish Tradition

In this presentation, I set out to clarify, first, what the Jewish tradition finds in the life of Abraham that accords special value to rational reflection and even philosophical inquiry. Second, I examine a specific example of how this characterization and valuation of Abraham plays out within the tradition of medieval Jewish scholastic theology (Kalām) in tenth-century Baghdad by examining Sa‘adia Gaon’s famous “Argument from Time” to establish both the creation of the universe in time and, by implication, the existence of a Creator God. From there, I show how he draws upon the work of John Philoponus (ca. 490–570) in constructing his argument. Third, I present and analyze a well-known philosophical parable that Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), representing the tradition of religious philosophy (Falsafah), introduces early on in The Guide of the Perplexed. This parable deals in a subtle and suggestive way with the possibilities and limitations of trying to free people from perplexity and guide them towards wisdom. It owes a great deal to the work of Abū Bakr ibn al-’ Ṣā’igh, otherwise known as Ibn Bājjah (d. 1138). I conclude with a number of observations on how Maimonides may have interpreted his sources so as to develop his distinctive view of God and how the pursuit of philosophical wisdom is compatible with the love of God.