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faculty assistant
Jonathan Schofer joined the Faculty of Divinity in
January 2006, after being on
the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
His research and teaching center on the ethics of virtue and character: the
nature of the self, ideals for living a good life, and especially how one is
to attain those ideals (spiritual exercises, disciplinary practices, and more). Schofer's primary area of research is classical rabbinic literature and
thought, and his first book is The Making of a Sage: A Study in Rabbinic
Ethics (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005). The study
highlights the pedagogical features of rabbinic texts and
focuses upon the roles of religious authorities in ethical transformation
(such as teachers, traditions, and deities). He is currently writing a
second book on rabbinic thought, addressing ways that rabbis give ethical
significance to the vulnerability and mortality of the body. Schofer is also
researching the relationship between virtue theory and psychoanalysis, and
the significance of divination and dream interpretation for comparative
ethics. Schofer teaches courses in both rabbinic Judaism and comparative
ethics. Material in his comparative classes includes theories of the self and
ethics inspired by Aristotle, Freud, and Foucault, and examples from
classical Greece and China as well as the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
curriculum vitae (Adobe
Reader required)
On leave academic year 2007-08.
courses:
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