Messianism in Medieval Jewish Thought

“Dov Schwartz is undeniably one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, and profound scholars of medieval Jewish philosophy and modern Jewish thought active today. In 1997 he published in Hebrew a ground-breaking study on the history of an idea: messianism among medieval Jewish theologians. That work remains unsurpassed today and its appearance in English, in an elegant translation by Batya Stein, is greatly to be welcomed. No one before Schwartz, and no one since, has sought to follow the permutations of the messianic idea (as Gershom Scholem famously called it) from R. Sa’adia Gaon through Don Isaac Abravanel. Given the salience of messianism in contemporary Judaism, be it in Habad circles or among (Orthodox) religious Zionists (about whom Schwartz has also written several influential works), this important study proves itself to be of great contemporary relevance.” -- Menachem Kellner, Shalem College, Jerusalem; University of Haifa (Emeritus), author of Science in the Bet Midrash: Studies in Maimonides and Torah in the Observatory: Gersonides, Maimonides, Song of Songs