The Scandal of a Divine Messiah

A Response to Maimonidean and Kabbalistic Challenges to the Incarnation

Brian J. Crawford

Foreword by Garrett J. DeWeese

The Scandal of a Divine Messiah

A Response to Maimonidean and Kabbalistic Challenges to the Incarnation

Copyright © 2024 Brian J. Crawford. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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version number 09/09/21

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part I: Setting the Stage for the Incarnation

1. Introduction

2. In Search of the God of the Hebrew Scriptures

3. The Historical-Textual Approach to Contextualizing the Incarnation

Part II: A Critique of Non-Incarnational Maimonidean and Kabbalistic Thought

4. The Greek Philosophical Schools Related to Medieval Judaism

5. Maimonides’s System of Absolute Divine Incorporeality

6. An Assessment of Maimonides’s System

7. The System of Lurianic Kabbalah

8. An Assessment of Lurianic Kabbalah’s Metaphysics

9. An Assessment of Lurianic Kabbalah’s History, Predecessors, and Science

Part III: The Incarnation of the Son of God

10. Foundations of the Incarnation

11. Implications of the Incarnation

12. From Scandal to Shalom

Appendices

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Bibliography

Ancient Document Index

General Index

Additional Resources

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About The Scandal of a Divine Messiah: A Response to Maimonidean and Kabbalistic Challenges to the Incarnation

In this groundbreaking book, Brian J. Crawford navigates the complex intellectual landscape that has traditionally separated Jews and Christians. His focus is on a scandalous claim: God became a man as Jesus of Nazareth. Since the Middle Ages, Jewish philosophers have said such an idea is impossible and absurd, and Jewish mystics have said the idea is redundant, for all things are inhabited by divine sparks. By critically examining the philosophical underpinnings of the Maimonidean and Kabbalistic thought that has shaped Jewish theology, Crawford constructs a compelling case for the incarnation that is grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures, consistent with history, informed by science, and illuminated by philosophical inquiry. Included within is a deep interaction with Maimonides's Guide to the Perplexed, the Jewish mystical tradition, historical Christian orthodoxy, and Messianic Jewish theology. This landmark study promises to reinvigorate Jewish-Christian discourse on the nature of God, the Jewishness of the Trinity and the incarnation, and the role of philosophy in Judaism and Christianity.

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