“Dov Schwartz is undeniably one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, and profound scholars of medieval Jewish philosophy and modern Jewish thought active today. In 1997 he published in Hebrew a ground-breaking study on the history of an idea: messianism among medieval Jewish theologians. That work remains unsurpassed today and its appearance in English, in an elegant translation by Batya Stein, is greatly to be welcomed. No one before Schwartz, and no one since, has sought to follow the permutations of the messianic idea (as Gershom Scholem famously called it) from R. Sa’adia Gaon through Don Isaac Abravanel. Given the salience of messianism in contemporary Judaism, be it in Habad circles or among (Orthodox) religious Zionists (about whom Schwartz has also written several influential works), this important study proves itself to be of great contemporary relevance.”
— Menachem Kellner, Shalem College, Jerusalem; University of Haifa (Emeritus), author of Science in the Bet Midrash: Studies in Maimonides and Torah in the Observatory: Gersonides, Maimonides, Song of Songs

Dov Schwartz, a former Dean of Humanities at Bar Ilan University and head of the departments of Philosophy and of Music, currently heads its interdisciplinary unit, and holds the Natalie and Isidore Friedman Chair for Teaching Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Thought.

Preface

Chapter One: Methodological Introduction

Chapter Two: Apocalyptic Messianism in a Rationalist Garb

Chapter Three: Individual Redemption and Naturalism

Chapter Four: The Resurgence of Apocalyptic Messianism

Chapter Five: The Decline of Collective Naturalism

Chapter Six: Between Naturalism and Apocalyptic Messianism

Chapter Seven: Clarifying Positions: The Last Stage

Chapter Eight: Conclusions: Redemption, Models, and Decisions

Appendix: History, Ideas, and the History of Ideas

Bibliography

Index