In the Image
Virtual Religion and Philosophical Talmud
Zachary J. Braiterman(Author)
Indiana University Press
Will be published approx. on 4. August 2026
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-253-07610-6 (ISBN)
Description
In the Image sets Jewish philosophy and contemporary aesthetics and art in conversation with Talmudic texts.
Pulling contemporary Jewish thought from the Bible as a model of philosophical reflection, author Zachary J. Braiterman turns to the Babylonian Talmud as a nonrealist model of religious-philosophical discourse steeped in the virtual. This "philosophical Talmud" pushes past the conceptual traps of modern Jewish thought. In the Image conceptualizes Jewish philosophy as a nonsymbolic, nonrealist form of theoretical discourse that bends consciousness around unreal, virtual objects and imaginary worlds, simulation and surface appearance of bodies and objects. In the Image explores the human and human viscera, sacred place, anthropomorphism, iconophilia, and cosmopolitanism as elemental forms of religious thought.
A new way of conceptualizing Jewish philosophy and religion, In the Image probes into the aesthetic determination of religious thought and practice to see how the basic reality and "truth" of religion are constituted inside the image itself.
Pulling contemporary Jewish thought from the Bible as a model of philosophical reflection, author Zachary J. Braiterman turns to the Babylonian Talmud as a nonrealist model of religious-philosophical discourse steeped in the virtual. This "philosophical Talmud" pushes past the conceptual traps of modern Jewish thought. In the Image conceptualizes Jewish philosophy as a nonsymbolic, nonrealist form of theoretical discourse that bends consciousness around unreal, virtual objects and imaginary worlds, simulation and surface appearance of bodies and objects. In the Image explores the human and human viscera, sacred place, anthropomorphism, iconophilia, and cosmopolitanism as elemental forms of religious thought.
A new way of conceptualizing Jewish philosophy and religion, In the Image probes into the aesthetic determination of religious thought and practice to see how the basic reality and "truth" of religion are constituted inside the image itself.
Reviews / Votes
"Braiterman's project is daring and innovative; his reading of the Babilonian Talmud fresh and unexpected yet simultaneously well-backed by his own studies and the erudite knowledge of the cutting-edge talmudic interpretations."-Agata Bielik-Robson, University of Nottingham"This book returns the power of the virtual to the image, as far as the Babylonian art of Talmud is concerned. . . . Images have been either denied reality or considered the only real that only is. Against this traditional bifurcation, Braiterman turns to the life lived and cast by the late ancient rabbis in their art of Talmud in order to retrieve the virtual as the core of what image is. The outcome is the departure from the traditional pigeonholing of the image into an idol and the return to image as no longer an object - either in or in opposition to reality but rather as the virtual through and in which the reality of life is first taking place."-Sergey Dolgopolski, SUNY Buffalo
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Bloomington, IN
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
594 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-253-07610-6 (9780253076106)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Zachary Braiterman is Professor in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. He is the author of The Shape of Revelation: Aesthetics and Modern Jewish Thought and (God) After Auschwitz: Tradition and Change in Post-Holocaust Jewish Thought and coeditor of The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: The Modern Era. He lives in New York City.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Philosophical Talmud & Phenomenology of Religion
1. Image-Talmud-Cinema
2. Human (In Utero)
3. Place (Beit Ha'Mikdash)
4. The Image of God
5. World (Image, Not Idol)
Conclusion: Truth of an Image
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Philosophical Talmud & Phenomenology of Religion
1. Image-Talmud-Cinema
2. Human (In Utero)
3. Place (Beit Ha'Mikdash)
4. The Image of God
5. World (Image, Not Idol)
Conclusion: Truth of an Image
Notes
Bibliography
Index