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"Theocratic movements are on the rise. But what does it actually mean for God to rule? This study offers one answer by recovering the theocratic project of medieval Judaism's most important thinker, Moses Maimonides. Theocracy is often thought to quash human agency, evoking an overpowering deity and clerical domination. Yet, by reconsidering Maimonides' debt to the Islamic philosopher al-Fåaråabåi, and challenging Leo Strauss' influential reading, I argue that among Maimonides' aims was to elevate humanity's role in divine rule. In its highest form, reason is identical with revelation, action with providence. God's governance is delegated: Theocracy requires human agency - the imitation of God. Maimonides focuses on philosophical religious leaders. But he also broadens imitatio dei to anyone whose knowledge of God inspires love of God: By emulating God's goodness, we can become agents of divine rule. In this way, Maimonides' ideas suggest ways by which theocracy and democracy might, counterintuitively, be reconciled"--
List of contents
Preface: Theocracy and the Rule of God; Introduction: The Return of Theocracy and Maimonides' Politics Reconsidered; 1. 'God's Governance in Another Way': Delegating Divine Rule in Al-Fārābī; 2. 'The Philosopher, Supreme Ruler, Prince, Legislator, and Imam is but a Single Idea': Al-Fārābī's 'First Ruler'; 3. 'Judgement is God's': Law and Philosophy in Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah; 4. 'The Holy One Has in His World Only the Four Cubits of the Law': Knowledge, Providence, and Human Agency; 5. 'God Governs this World by Way of Angels': Moses in the Guide to the Perplexed; 6. 'This Law is Divine': The Torah as 'Kingly Craft'; 7. 'Love Depends on Knowing': Imitating God; 8. 'The Human Attainment Rightly Gloried in is Ruling Them as He Does': Rule of God, Rule of the Good; Coda: Democracy and the Rule of God; References.
Summary
Theocratic movements are on the rise. But what does it actually mean for God to rule? This Element offers one answer by recovering the theocratic project of medieval Judaism's most important thinker, Moses Maimonides.
Foreword
By recovering Maimonides' theocratic project, this Element proposes one way to reconcile theocracy and democracy.
