Congratulations to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, author of Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence, who has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Templeton Prize. Established in 1972, the Templeton Prize honors “outstanding individuals who have devoted their talents to expanding our vision of human purpose and ultimate reality. The Prize celebrates no particular faith tradition or notion of God, but rather the quest for progress in humanity’s efforts to comprehend the many and diverse manifestations of the Divine.” Rabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, and is the author of more than twenty-five books. Valued at £1.1 million, the Templeton Prize is one of the world’s largest annual awards given to an individual. Rabbi Sacks will be formally awarded the Templeton Prize at a public ceremony in London on May 26th.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Awarded 2016 Templeton Prize
By Tim Cheng | March 2 2016 | Humanities & Social Sciences
Confronting Religious Violence
978-0-8052-1268-6
In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit—i.e., my religion is the only right path to God, therefore your religion is by definition wrong—and when individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls “altruistic evil,” violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the inevitable outcome. But through an exploration of the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, and employing groundbreaking biblical analysis and interpretation, Rabbi Sacks shows that religiously inspired violence has as its source misreadings of biblical texts at the heart of all three Abrahamic faiths. By looking anew at the book of Genesis, with its foundational stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Sacks offers a radical rereading of many of the Bible’s seminal stories of sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Rachel and Leah.
$17.95 US
Feb 07, 2017
Paperback
320 Pages
Schocken
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