The Biblical Mind

In this short NPR episode, Yoram Hazony opens the “bottle” of the Hebrew Bible and reads the message inside, arguing that the Hebrew Bible is philosophy in narrative form. The message is this: there is hope for human political affairs, and the Scriptures are an epic that advocate wariness of great imperial powers and individualism in the face of authority. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, CHT director Dr. Dru Johnson interviews Yoram Hazony about the recent history of viewing the Bible as a work of philosophy. They discuss the state of academics and the unique influence of Hebraic philosophy on our way of understanding the world. 

Yoram Hazony is President of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, and currently serves as Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a new public affairs institute based in Washington that will be hosting the first National Conservatism Conference in July 2019.

His book The Virtue of Nationalism was published by Basic Books in September 2018. It has been selected as Conservative Book of the Year for 2019, and was an amazon #1 best-seller in both International Diplomacy and Nationalism. You can read all the reviews of the book here.

His previous books include The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture (Cambridge University Press, 2012), which won the second place PROSE award for the best book in the category of Theology and Religion by the Association of American Publishers; The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel’s Soul (Basic Books, 2000); and God and Politics in Esther (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Did ancient Israelites think like we do today? Did they have abstract thoughts? If we don't, then can we understand anything the biblical authors said? Dr. Dru Johnson discusses reasons to trust that we do think similarly to the biblical authors. 

For a more technical survey of this discussion, see Dru's essay "Did Ancient Hebrews Have Different Minds than the Greeks?"

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Abby Smith and Dr. Dru Johnson discuss what "Hebraic thought" has to do with the New Testament and whether we need the Old Testament in order to understand the New.

Note: Dr. Johnson mistakenly referenced Leviticus 18:19, which should have been Lev 19:18.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For more on this, see "What is Hebraic Thought?"

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

 “Hebraic thought is more than just religion—it’s a fully-formed cultural tradition. It includes that rich collection of ideas, concepts, stories, and values that emerge from the world of ancient Israel.”

—Rob Nicholson

“‘Hebraic thought’ refers to the reasoning and philosophy developed within the Hebrew Bible, continued into the New Testament, and not found elsewhere in the ancient Near East.”

—Dru Johnson

The Hebrew Bible contains a rich tapestry of ideas worked out over centuries by the biblical authors. In addition to communicating God’s instruction to His people, we see their thinking on display through their rigorous, systematic thoughts about the nature of reality and how humans can understand reality. These thoughts aren’t just musings; the authors advocate a way of understanding reality. Both their ideas and the way they arrived at those ideas is “Hebraic thought.”

For more information, please visit us at HebraicThought.org.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.