Monotheism

In this revised version of his 2018 book, The Idea of Monotheism, Jack Shechter offers a detailed clarification of the ideational development within each of the tenets that flow from the Oneness of God that is the core of the monotheistic idea as it has evolved over the centuries. The Idea of Monotheism historically traces the concept of God as it emerged in the ongoing life of the people in specific time periods; it reflects the newly perceived perspectives about the deity due to changing times, locales, and climates of opinion. However, so profoundly One is God in Judaism, these transformations had no effect whatever on this eternally uniform substance. Thus, what man did over time was to uncover God's true nature; he unraveled that which was always there—the nonexistence of other gods and His universality.

In this revised version of his 2018 book, The Idea of Monotheism, Jack Shechter offers a detailed clarification of the ideational development within each of the tenets that flow from the Oneness of God that is the core of the monotheistic idea as it has evolved over the centuries. The Idea of Monotheism historically traces the concept of God as it emerged in the ongoing life of the people in specific time periods; it reflects the newly perceived perspectives about the deity due to changing times, locales, and climates of opinion. However, so profoundly One is God in Judaism, these transformations had no effect whatever on this eternally uniform substance. Thus, what man did over time was to uncover God's true nature; he unraveled that which was always there—the nonexistence of other gods and His universality.

For two decades, Jack Shechter served as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Dean of Continuing Education—renamed The Whizen Center for Continuing Education—at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University). Prior to his tenure at the University of Judaism, he served as Executive Director of the New England Region of the United Synagogue of America, followed by a decade as the Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Pittsburgh. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and received the Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and is the author of The Land of Israel: Its Theological Dimensions (2010) and Journey of a Rabbi (2014), The Idea of Monotheism: The Evolution of a Foundational Concept (2018), and In Search of the Religiosity in Religion: Sacred Thought, Sacred Action Revisited (2020).