An ethical approach to religion tries to make sense of religious claims in terms of values shared by religious and secular people alike. In From Idolatry to Holiness, Samuel Fleischaker contributes to that project by providing an ethical framework for understanding the purpose of Jewish law (halakha). He begins by interpreting idolatry as self-worship, and explores the idea, advocated by Moses Maimonides, that Jewish law aims at curing people of idolatry. Though he endorses aspects of this idea, Fleischacker criticizes Maimonides and his modern followers for having an alienating and remote conception of God and a thin conception of the purpose of human life. He then uses ideas gleaned from Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Martin Heidegger to provide a richer conception of God and of our lives. Halakha does not just free us of self-worship, Fleischacker concludes. Rather, it enables us to experience the presence of God-holiness-in everything around us.

‘From Idolatry to Holiness is a bold and lucid achievement. It proposes a modern Jewish ethics centered on avoiding the sin of idolatry understood as self-worship. Combining philosophical, psychological, and aesthetic insights, this book will speak to philosophers exploring the nature of religion and to anyone exploring their own religious tradition.'

Melissa Lane - Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University

‘With consummate philosophical skill, Sam Fleischacker breathes new conceptual life into Jewish law, and revivifies ancient ideas such as idolatry and holiness, in a manner that will fascinate anyone interested in the nature of the good life and what a philosophically informed religious outlook can bring to it.'

Daniel Rynhold - Yeshiva University

‘Samuel Fleischacker's From Idolatory to Holiness enlivens culturally tired notions of holiness and idolatry, retrieving what is ethically indispensable about them. His erudite reflections on his own Jewish tradition speak to everyone who is concerned to make sense of the place of transcendent and mundane goods in their own lives.'

Mark C. Murphy - McDevitt Professor of Religious Philosophy, Georgetown University

‘Sam Fleischacker is one of the leading figures in the burgeoning field of analytic Jewish theology. Fleischacker engages Plato and Maimonides to make the bold argument that Halakhah or Jewish law is a ‘cure for idolatry.' This cure begins in ethics but culminates in a positive appreciation of God that leads to holiness. This book is a meticulously argued, creative, and deeply penetrating work of constructive Jewish theology.'

Steven Kepnes - Colgate University

‘A fresh and compelling phenomenology of Judaism, philosophy of commandedness, commentary on holiness, and ethical poetics of living with God in a contemporary key, Fleischacker's work skillfully enables centuries of philosophical and Jewish wisdom to concretely and directly shed light on the value of living halakhically- and also more broadly, religiously.'

Sarah Pessin - University of Denver