Elias听Sacks

  • Associate Professor
  • RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Address

Office: HUMN 286

Curricula Vitae

Ph.D., Princeton University, 2012

Research Interests:听

Judaism, religious thought, religion and politics, theories and methods, religious ethics

Primary Teaching Areas and Opportunities for Student Supervision

  • Jewish thought, history, and exegesis
  • Jewish-Christian relations
  • modern philosophy and theology
  • religion, ethics, and politics
  • theories and methods

Overview

Elias Sacks joined the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder faculty in 2012, and works on the Jewish tradition, religious thought, and theories and methods in the study of religion. After receiving his A.B. from Harvard University and studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he earned an M.A. in Religion from Columbia University (2007) and a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University (2012). His research focuses on the modern period, with particular areas of interest including Jewish thought, Jewish-Christian relations, philosophy of religion, religion and politics, hermeneutics, and religious ethics. His first book,听听(Indiana University Press, 2017), offers a far-reaching reassessment of the account of Jewish practice developed by Moses Mendelssohn, the eighteenth-century philosopher generally seen as the founder of modern Jewish thought. Sacks is currently working on a second book听on the nineteenth-century thinker Nachman Krochmal, one of modernity鈥檚 first Eastern European Jewish philosophers.听He has also written on medieval and modern figures such as Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Jacob Taubes, and published some of the first English translations of Mendelssohn鈥檚 Hebrew works in听a听听(Brandeis University Press, 2011, finalist for the National Jewish Book Award).听

Sacks is the Modern Judaism editor for the听听(De Gruyter), and is involved in grant-funded projects on听Jews of color in the United States听and听. He holds leadership positions in the Association for Jewish Studies and Society of Jewish Ethics, and previously served as Director of The Jewish Publication Society.

Recent and Forthcoming Publications (Selected)

  • "Can God Reject the Jewish People? Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik, Supersessionism, and Modern Jewish Thought,"听Journal of Textual Reasoning听(forthcoming)
  • "Moses Mendelssohn," in听Jewish Virtue Ethics, eds. Geoffrey Claussen, Alex Green, and Alan Mittleman (SUNY Press, 2023), 241-254
  • "Modes of Interpretation in Jewish Ethics" in听Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics, 3 vols., eds. William听Schweiker, Maria Antonaccio, Elizabeth Bucar, and David Clairmont (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), 2:831-840
  • "Liturgical Counter-Symbols: Jacob Taubes, Franz Rosenzweig, and the Politics of Redemption,"听Rosenzweig Jahrbuch听12 (2021): 127-141
  • "Exegesis and Politics Between East and West: Nachman Krochmal, Moses Mendelssohn, and Modern Jewish Thought,"听Harvard Theological Review听114.4 (2021): 508-535
  • "The Promise and Perils of Perplexity: Jewish Philosophy and Public Culture, Yesterday and Today," in听The Future of Jewish Philosophy, volume 21 of听The Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, eds. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron Hughes (Brill, 2018), 79-97
  • "Poetry, Music, and the Limits of Harmony: Mendelssohn鈥檚 Aesthetic Critique of Christianity,鈥 in听Sara Levy鈥檚 World: Bach, Gender, and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin, eds. Nancy Sinkoff and Rebecca Cypess, Eastman Studies in听Music (University of Rochester Press),听122-146
  • 鈥淲orlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought,鈥 in听Olam Ha-zeh v鈥橭lam Ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice, ed. Leonard Greenspoon, Studies in听Jewish Civilization (Purdue University Press),听171-195
  • 鈥淚s God Eternal? Revisiting Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig on Reason, Revelation, and the Name of God,鈥澨Modern Theology听33.1 (2017): 69-91
  • 听(Indiana University Press, 2017)
  • "Law, Ethics, and the Needs of History: Mendelssohn, Krochmal, and Moral Philosophy,鈥 Journal of Religious Ethics 44.2 (2016): 352-377
  • "Civic Freedom out of the Sources of Judaism: Mendelssohn, Maimonides, and Law鈥檚 Promise,鈥澨Journal of Jewish Ethics 2.1 (2016): 86-111
  • "Anarchy and Law: Mendelssohn on Philosophy and Judaism,鈥 in听Moses Mendelssohn:听Enlightenment, Religion, Politics, Nationalism, eds. Charles Manekin and Michah Gottlieb (University Press of Maryland, 2015), 237-273
  • 鈥淪pinoza, Maimonides and the Politics of Prophecy,鈥澨Jewish Studies Quarterly听21.1 (2014): 67-98
  • 鈥鈥楩inden Sie mich sehr amerikanisch?鈥: Jacob Taubes, Hermann Cohen, and the Return to German-Jewish Liberalism,鈥澨Leo Baeck Institute Year Book听57 (2012): 187-210
  • 鈥淢oses Mendelssohn,鈥澨 Oxford Bibliographies听in听Jewish Studies, ed. David Biale (Oxford University Press, 2012)
  • Selections from the writings of Moses Mendelssohn (Hebrew), in听, ed. Michah Gottlieb, trans. Allan Arkush, Curtis Bowman, and Elias Sacks, Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought (Brandeis University Press, 2011); Finalist for 2011 National Jewish Book Award

Affiliations

  • Jewish Studies
  • Center for Asian Studies

Courses

  • FYSM 1000 (first-year seminar): God
  • RLST 2400: Religion, Ethics, and Politics
  • RLST/JWST 3100: Judaism
  • RLST/JWST 4170-5170: God and Politics
  • RLST/JWST 4180-5180: Is God Dead?
  • RLST/JWST 4190-5190: Love & Desire
  • RLST/JWST 4260-5260: Topics in Judaism: Bible in Judaism and Christianity
  • RLST 6830: Introduction to the Academic Study of Religion
  • JWST 4000: Capstone in Jewish Studies
  • RLST 4840 / JWST 4900: Undergraduate Independent Study
  • RLST 5840 / RLST 6840 / JWST 5900: Graduate Independent Study