Introduction

This book is a philosophical inquiry into the relationships among holiness, ethics, and violence. Drawing on the resources of Jewish philosophy, it examines what holiness is, how it is connected to morality, and how it is implicated in that breakdown of morality otherwise known as violence. The discussion aims to facilitate an analysis of religious violence in Judaism and present a concept of holiness in Judaism that is true to its biblical roots—that is not simply reducible to moral categories but that is nonetheless linked to morality. Working in the idioms of philosophical theology and ethics, this book also considers God's character and conduct. The question about holiness and violence, it asserts, is a question about how we ought to conceive of God. Finally, the book looks at the entanglement of holiness with goodness and advances an original theory of holiness, what it calls a “natural history of holiness”.