CALL FOR PAPERS
Political Hebraism: Jewish Sources in the History of Political Thought
Conference at Princeton University
September 7-9, 2008

Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers -- philosophers, scholars,
statesmen, theologians, and rabbis -- have historically drawn ideas
with political import from the Hebrew Bible and from talmudic and
later rabbinic writings. The derivation of political thought from the
Hebrew Bible and later Hebrew sources coexisted and continues to
coexist with better-known Greek, Roman, European, and Anglo-American
traditions. As such, the Hebraic political tradition, broadly defined,
constitutes an integral if understudied component of the history and
legacy of Western political thought. The 2008 conference on political
Hebraism invites proposals that examine various aspects of this
Hebraic political tradition, including analyses and appropriations of
elements of the Hebrew Bible and Jewish textual tradition in the
history of political thought as well as constructive evaluations of
some of their central ideas

While other submissions will be considered, we especially invite
proposals that address the following topics:

Origins and Ends of Political Society

Thinkers with widely ranging understandings of the origins and ends of
the political order have drawn on Hebraic sources: Some have looked to
contractual agreements, and others believed the political order was
divinely ordained. Whether the ultimate goal of politics was conceived
as concord or salvation, these understandings could be grounded in
Hebraic sources.

Papers in this section will examine such questions within the Jewish
tradition as: To what extent is politics a response to human nature?
Does the polity have a divine or messianic end, or does it serve the
ends of its members or human society? To what extent is political
virtue valued, and of what does it consist? Papers should also
consider whether questions such as these arise within the Jewish
tradition or outside it. These questions may be addressed with direct
reference to Jewish texts, or it may explore how the tradition has
been pressed into service to deal with them.


Monarchy and Republicanism

Questions surrounding political regimes -- which is preferable? how do
they evolve? what are the roles of the key players? -- are issues
central to Greek political philosophy; similarly, the question of
which regime is preferable is often addressed within the Jewish
tradition. To what extent is monarchy Judaism's preferred regime? Is
there an essential nature to biblical monarchy as it was discussed and
established? Is the Jewish tradition concerned with actual regimes and
the mechanics of politics, or do these discussions tend to be
symbolic? What is the role of the scholar-king within the Judaic
tradition? Is there a relationship between philosophy and government
within this tradition?

Papers in this section may represent the authors' own understandings
and interpretations of the political thought of Hebrew sources as
these address political regimes. Alternatively, papers may examine
reliance on Hebrew sources by political thinkers throughout history.


Nationhood

Since the modern nation-state began dominating European politics in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, appeals to the Hebraic
tradition and allusions to the people of Israel have become
increasingly commonplace in political thought. Questions of nations
and nationhood have recently regained prominence in political
discourse, and there is now frequent talk of a "post-national world."
Can Hebraic sources contribute to this debate? If so, is their
contribution comparable to their place in the early-modern analyses
and defense of the emergent modern state and new conceptions of the
nation?

Papers may address the nation in Jewish thought or the Hebrew nation
as it was taken to be a model for other nations in history; they may
also develop or propose theories of the nation rooted in Hebraic
sources


Law and Constitutionalism

It has been widely asserted -- at least since the New Testament
missionary writings of St. Paul -- that the Jewish tradition is
distinctly identifiable by its focus on the law. Those who valued as
well as those who derogated the Jewish tradition often characterized
it in this manner. To what extent is Jewish law political law? How
within this tradition do the laws of the political system relate to
religious laws? Is consent a necessary attribute of Judaic
constitutionalism? Is there a relationship between contemporary
jurisprudence and Hebraic -- biblical as well as rabbinic --
understandings of the "rule of law"? Does the Judaic legal tradition
permit or even invite an interplay between positive and divine law? To
what extent do theorists and jurisprudential scholars -- ranging from
Grotius, Selden, and the authors of The Federalist to Robert Cover and
perhaps even H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin -- who have incorporated
Hebraic legal notions into their analyses of Western legal systems,
succeed in transplanting Hebraic conceptions into new contexts? Where
might Jewish conceptions of law provide alternative perspectives in
discussions of legal issues today?


Theories of Justice

Greek political thought arguably begins with a search for justice
rather than with the concern for order that may be said to
characterize Hebraic political thought in the biblical period. How and
how much is the Jewish political tradition concerned with justice? Is
there a recapturable conception of justice that is peculiar to
political Hebraism? In periods when Jewish rather than Greek and Roman
texts served as sources for political thought, what if any
alternatives to the classical notions of justice were found in the
Jewish tradition?

Papers may address biblical ideas or ideals of justice broadly
conceived, the idea of justice propounded by any rabbi or group of
rabbis, or theories of justice that purport to draw from the Jewish
textual tradition. Alternatively, papers may propose distinctively
Hebraic theories of justice or compare Jewish and Greek and/or Roman,
Christian, Muslim, Eastern, and Western thought on these and related
matters


The Individual and the Collective

The relationship between the individual and the collective is among
the most evident concerns that distinguish modern political regimes
and ideologies from one another and from pre-modern forms of
governance. How does the Hebraic tradition conceive of this
relationship? Is there a single, unifying understanding of the
individual-collective relationship in the various forms of Jewish
political organization -- kahal, kehilla, and goy, for instance?


Methodology

The Jewish textual tradition can be studied as a body of texts,
coherent or not, just as the Bible may be conceived as a single book,
but none of this can be taken as self-evident. By the same token,
neither can readings of the Bible and of the Jewish textual tradition
be offered as parts of the same field without encountering and
contravening disciplinary conventions.

Papers in this section will pose and address methodological obstacles
to the study of political Hebraism, proposing solutions and ideas that
will assist scholars in the field.

Proposals, each including a 300-500-word abstract and a short letter
of introduction, should be sent by e-mail to [log in to unmask] no
later than December 15, 2007. It is presumed that all papers presented
at the conference will also be submitted for publication in Hebraic
Political Studies, subject to double-blind review. Authors should
state their intentions with regard to publication in their initial
proposals. Authors of papers accepted for presentation will be
notified by February 1, 2008. Complete drafts of these papers should
be submitted for distribution to conference participants by May 15,
2008.

Scholars and students whose papers are accepted for presentation, or
who are invited to participate in the conference as discussants or
panel chairs, will be offered financial support that will allow their
participation. Acceptance of this support will entail a commitment to
participate in the entire conference.

For more information, contact:
Meirav Jones
Associate Editor, Hebraic Political Studies
Managing Director, Institute for Philosophy, Politics and Religion
The Shalem Center
[log in to unmask]
972-2-560-5589
www.hpstudies.org