The Unity Principle

by Ellis Rivkin and Behrman House

Book Overview

This scholarly, yet engaging, book presents a dynamic interpretation of Jewish history--from biblical to modern times--as a set of interconnected and evolving events and relationships that spring directly from Judaism's core beliefs. Rivkin explores how monotheism has enabled Jews throughout history to adapt themselves, their communities, and their vision of the Covenant whenever they were confronted by new circumstances or historical forces...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874411742
• ISBN13: 9780874411744
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Behrman House Publishing
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

We are God seekers and Our God teaches

This audacious book presents a creative theory of virtually everything! I am so in awe of Professor Rivkin that anything I write here is going to be inadequate. It's impossible to do justice to Rivkin's comprehensive knowledge of Jewish history and world history, to his powerful explanations of the creative power of monotheism or his observations of our present global challenges and possibilities. One must experience this great mind first hand. The Unity Principle is as accessible as it is brilliant. The man writes beautifully. This is a transformative book. You may not be the same after you read it. We are God seekers, and our God is a God who teaches. That is the essence yet only the beginning of Rivkin's offering here.

The Unity Principle, by Rivkin

The book arrived promptly and in good condition. Although I have only browsed in the book, so far, I find it to be very interesting. It is a valuable asset to my Interfaith Relations library. Dr Rivkin is a renowned authority on the matters of which he writes.

An elegantly written, scholarly review of Jewish history

This distillation of the wisdom gained in a lifetime of scholarly inquiry and teaching by a professor of Jewish history concisely presents complex concepts in a readily comprehensible and elegantly written style. Dr. Rivkin traces the metamorphoses of Jewish concepts of deity throughout the vicissitudes of Jewish historical experience, in the process documenting "the chosen people's" remarkable capacities for adaptation and survival. Inculcated and nurtured by scholars, priests, and prophets, the Jews' commitment to monotheism has remained constant through mutating prisms of experience and historical process. Indeed, Dr. Rivkin emphasizes, there is no simple or universal Jewish theology, but rather a process of searching for, rather than finding, an omnipotent deity who endowed humankind with free will and therefore with the capacities for both good and evil. Within this historical perspective, the author finds an underlying unity in the spectrum of Jewish beliefs from those of the ultra-orthodox through those of their secular and non-professing counterparts, and he identifies this unity with the liberating impulses of capitalistic globalization affecting all of humankind that are disproportionately implemented and advanced by urbanized, well-educated intellectuals, professionals, and merchants of Jewish descent. In short, this work constitutes a summary of world history with especial emphasis on the unique contributions made by those schooled in Jewish thought, values, and faith.