Idolatry

"You shall have no other gods besides Me". This injunction, handed down through Moses 3000 years ago, marks one of the most decisive shifts in Western culture: away from polytheism toward monotheism. Despite the momentous implications of such a turn, the role of idolatry in giving it direction and impetus is little understood. This book examines the meaning and nature of idolatry - and, in doing so, reveals much about the monotheistic tradition that defines itself against this sin.;The authors consider Christianity and Islam, but focus primarily on Judaism. They explore competing claims about the concept of idolatry that emerges in the Hebrew Bible, as a "whoring after false gods". Does such a description, grounded in an analogy of sexual relations, presuppose the actual existence of other gods with whom someone might sin? Or are false gods the product of "mens hands", simply a matter of misguided belief? The authors show how this debate, over idolatry as practice or error, has taken shape and has in turn shaped the course of Western thought - from the differentiation between Jewish and Christian conceptions of God to the distinctions between true and false belief that inform the tradition of religious enlightenment.;Ranging with authority from the Talmud to Maimonides, from Marx to Nietzsche and on to G.E. Moore, this account of a subject central to our culture also has much to say about metaphor, myth and the application of philosophical analysis to religious concepts and sensibilities.