ABSTRACT
Guided by a theoretical point of view that categorizes religions in terms of major cosmopolitical achievements and transitions, the chapter identifies the emergence of Judaism in the effort to enable a Torah-governed system of spiritual, ethical, and political values to transition from being grounded in an archaic Hebraic adaptation of Babylonian science to new grounding in a Jewish adaptation of Hellenic science. Judaism made its first appearance when Creation came to be understood as an act of divine wisdom, and a primordial entity called Wisdom came to be identified with the Torah. Focusing on the drama of divine-human relations as it unfolds through the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings, the chapter examines the biblical delineation of the limits of God’s power to guarantee cosmos-polis harmony in face of the dynamic concentration of chaos that life itself, and the human capacity for choice, introduce into Creation. The drama concludes with the realization that, if there is to be a Kingdom of God on Earth, God must allow humans to create it on their own terms, in obedience to the will of God, which Judaism will come to see as totally embodied in the Torah.
