Messianic age, reward and punishment in the other life; concluding with a chapter on ethics as a kind of appendix.

Saadia shows himself familiar with Greek philosophy, as far as it was accessible to him in Arabic translations, and with Christian as well as Moslem theology. In the first chapter he states and criticises twelve theories of the origin of the world held by different philosophers and religious bodies. Under the head of the unity of God he combats both dualistic theories (Zoroastrian, Manichæan), and the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Person of Christ; and in a later chapter controverts the Christian arguments to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, particularly those based on the interpretation of Dan. 9, 24-27. His discussion of the Trinity avoids a polemic against vulgar polytheistic notions of the divine persons, and confines his criticism to the Trinitarian doctrine of the theologians. Like the Moslem controversialists, he finds the root of the error in a misconception of the nature of the divine attributes upon a false analogy drawn from the nature of man, which gave them an existence of their own, beside, rather than in, the essence of God. In the sequel he shows himself remarkably acquainted with the subtleties of Christological speculation, in which he distinguishes four conflicting theories.

In the following centuries Jewish theology and philosophy ran along with the movements of Moslem thought which are to be described in a later chapter. The Neoplatonic elements in the composite Arab philosophy and in the Moslem mystics made themselves felt in Judaism, also, in a greater inwardness of religion and a mystical tone of piety. This is strongly marked in Bahya ibn Pakuda's "Duties of the Inner Man," written in Spain perhaps a century and a half after Saadia, the first methodical treatment in Jewish literature of the religious and moral life-piety and ethics.

Outward, bodily actions, including the external observances of religion, have meaning and worth only as they express what lies beneath them in the mind and heart; it is only with this inner man that the author proposes to deal.

Both piety and ethics have their root in the recognition of God and gratitude to him; man should therefore seek first to know God truly and to revere him sincerely. God, as he is in himself, is indeed beyond man's knowing; he is the absolute One. What we can know about God is to be learned from contemplation of nature from which, indeed, apart from revelation, we are aware of his existence-and of ourselves; this, therefore, is the first of the duties of the inner man. The argument from the created world to the Creator runs on similar lines to Saadia's, as does also the proof of God's unity. Different kinds of unity are to be distinguished; the unity of God is a substantial unity, the ultimate reality, the unchangeable ground of being. The attributes of God-existence, unity, eternity-are inseparable from the essence of God; they are, in truth, only negations of the opposites. Our inability to know God in himself corresponds to our inability to know our own soul, whose existence is nevertheless manifest in every thought and

act.

This foundation laid, the author goes on to treat successively of the worship of God (in the heart and under external forms), trust in God (providence, immortality), single-mindedness in the service of God, humility, penitence, self-examination, withdrawal from the world, love to God. Love of God, which is the end of all moral and religious selfdiscipline, is the longing of the soul for the source of its life, in which alone is its rest and peace. As in the theological part of the work Bahya is in general accord with Saadia and the Moslem theologians, so in other parts the influence of the Encyclopædia of the Pure Brethren of Basra is demonstrable. Nor is his affinity to Ibn Gabirol and al-Ghazali to be overlooked.

The "Duties of the Inner Man" has been one of the great forces in moulding the religious life of the Jews. It is still extensively used as a spiritual guide by all classes, circulating in many editions, and frequently furnished with

1 See below, pp. 450 ff.

a modern translation for the benefit of women and others whose understanding may not reach to philosophical Hebrew.

Solomon ibn Gabirol (d. ca. 1058) is the most noteworthy exponent of Neoplatonism among Jews or Moslems, though, like the rest, his Neoplatonic ideas run into Aristotelian moulds. God is for him the metaphysical Absolute. This Absolute, or first substance, is at one pole; at the other is the world of matter and form. The gulf is spanned by the divine will, which thus assumes in his system the function of the Logos in Philo's, mediating between the Absolute and finite existence. Unlike Philo, however, Ibn Gabirol makes no attempt to show that this high philosophy is allegorically contained in the Bible; he develops his system in a kind of religious fourth dimension, without reference to Scripture or specifically Jewish beliefs. When the "Fons Vita" of "Avicebron" became known in Latin translation to the schoolmen, it was not suspected that the author was a Jew; the work was thought to be by some Moslem philosopher. Through it a fresh current of Neoplatonism flowed into scholastic channels; Duns Scotus was especially influenced by it. Among the Jews Aristotle was in the ascendant, and though Ibn Gabirol is one of the most highly esteemed of the synagogue poets, and his great hymn, “Kether Malkuth," is permeated with the spirit of his philosophy, his ideas made little impression on Jewish thought, unless in the mystical circles in which the Kabbala was cultivated.

The modified Arab Aristotelianism of al-Farabi and Avicenna, which made room for emanation theories of Neoplatonic extraction, became in the twelfth century the dominant influence in Jewish religious philosophy. But whatever the alloy of these composite philosophies, their pretension was to be a loftier and purer religion for intellectual men. They had in science and metaphysics the truth of which positive religions were only an adumbration for unphilosophical minds. Knowledge and speculative 1 "The Crown of Divine Sovereignty."

thinking were the way of intellectual salvation, the attainment of the true end of man's being, to which neither the implicit acceptance of hereditary beliefs nor the scrupulous performance of moral and ceremonial prescriptions conduct man. In interpreting the Bible or interpreting it away--by the principle that nothing in revelation can contradict reason, they made reason the ultimate and indefeasible authority.

To this presumption of philosophy Judah ha-Levi strenuously demurred. In his dialogue Kuzari (ca. 1140), a pious king of the Khazars, in search of a more satisfactory religion than that of his forefathers, invites a "philosopher"—that is, an Arab Aristotelian-a Christian, and a Moslem, to expound to him their respective doctrines. The king makes pertinent objections to them in turn, and, since both Christianity and Mohammedanism are by their own admission sprung from Judaism, he finally sends for a Jew, who convinces him that Judaism is the best religion; in consequence, he and his people embrace it.1

So far from having the decisive word in questions of religion, Judah contends that philosophy has nothing to say about such matters. In mathematics and logic, and in natural science based on observation, its results may be certain or probable; but beyond that, in cosmic physics and in metaphysics, it offers only conflicting and unverifiable hypotheses. The fundamental truths of the Jewish religion-creation out of nothing, particular providence, the immortality and destiny of the soul-are not discovered or demonstrated by reasoning; they rest on the historic fact of a revelation to Israel through prophets. The way to the highest knowledge of God is not speculation, but simple and unquestioning faith.

Judah's antipathy to philosophy is not the jealousy of ignorance. His discussion of the problems of the divine attributes and of the freedom of the will prove, on the contrary, that he was well instructed in philosophy and an 1 The conversion of the Khazars, a Turkish people, is a historical fact.

acute thinker. Where the disputes of philosophers had confused men and perplexed their faith, sounder reasoning must clear up their intellectual difficulties. His attitude towards the arrogant claims of the philosophers resembles that of the great Moslem theologian, al-Ghazali, to whom, indeed, Judah ha-Levi is greatly indebted. Like Ghazali, also, he finds a ground of religious assurance in religious experience. The Neoplatonic strain in him is strong; it gives its character to his mysticism, and from its doctrine of emanation is derived one of the leading ideas of his work, the influence of the divine Logos on a chosen part of mankind.

The Aristotelian period in Jewish theology begins with Abraham ibn Daud (d. 1180), who on the basis of the Arab Aristotelianism of Avicenna develops philosophically the fundamental religious conceptions, and endeavours to prove that philosophical theory and Scripture teaching are in complete harmony, the difference being only that the Bible presents these truths in popular form for the common mind.

The greatest name among the Jewish Aristotelians, and one of the greatest in the whole history of Judaism, is Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides; d. 1294). Born in Cordova in 1135, he was forced to flee from Spain by the bigotry of the Almohades,1 and spent most of his life in Egypt, where he was court physician to Saladin. His chief theological work is the "Guide of the Perplexed," addressed to such as have been led by philosophy to doubt whether revealed religion can be reconciled with reason. Maimonides undertakes to show that not only is there no contradiction between the truths of reason and those of religion, but that the chief doctrines of religion can be philosophically demonstrated, and faith thus established on a rational foundation. Indeed, if faith be not merely the assent of the lips but of the intelligence, this is the only way to it. Like all philosophic theologians, Maimonides was con1 See below, pp. 470 ff.

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