Overview

Leo Strauss is widely recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of Maimonides. His studies of the medieval Jewish philosopher led to his rediscovery of esotericism and deepened his sense that the tension between reason and revelation was central to modern political thought. His writings throughout the twentieth century were chiefly responsible for restoring Maimonides as a philosophical thinker of the first rank. Yet, to appreciate the extent of Strauss’s contribution to the scholarship on Maimonides, one has traditionally had to seek out essays he published separately spanning almost fifty years.            With Leo Strauss on Maimonides, Kenneth Hart Green presents for the first time a comprehensive, annotated collection of Strauss’s writings on Maimonides, comprising sixteen essays, three of which appear in English for the first time. Green has also provided careful translations of materials that had originally been quoted in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, German, and French; written an informative introduction highlighting the original contributions found in each essay; and brought references to out-of-print editions fully up to date. The result will become the standard edition of Strauss’s writings on Maimonides.

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It is to the enduring credit of Leo Strauss that he effected a radical reconsideration of Maimonides. To be sure, philosophers have engaged Maimonides over the centuries, but none reached down so deep into his modus operandi. Strauss made clear the strategies pursued by Maimonides in his effort to convey discrete messages to different audiences, and that newly regained awareness of how Maimonides wrote--and hence needed to be read--gave rise to renewed vigorous debate. --Ralph Lerner, University of Chicago Lerner, University of Chicago

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Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. He is the author of many books, among them The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Natural Right and History, and Spinoza's Critique of Religion, all published by the University of Chicago Press. Kenneth Hart Green is associate professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss

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