Research Seminar November 27th: Menachem Fisch (Concluding Lecture of the Conference “Changing One's Mind”) - Bossy Matrons and Forced Marriages: Talmudic Confrontationalism and its Lessons for Science

The Talmudic literature's confrontational voice has been noted by scholars, as has its insistent and all-pervading dialogism. However, the former has yet to be appreciated as advocating a fully-fledged theology of imperfection, as is the inherent connection between the two. The way in which keen and open-ended, dialogical engagement is pressed in the Talmudic literature into the service of a confrontational form of religiosity, renders it unique among religious canons, and a model of rational self-awareness for all forms of deliberative human endeavor, including science.