Abstract

Though widely known as a political thinker, Leo Strauss began his intellectual career as a Jewish scholar, and continued to expand the field of his Jewish interests during the entire course of his life. The primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate that there exists what may be called the Jewish thought of Leo Strauss, and that this may be most accurately characterized as a "return to Maimonides." This thesis argues that Strauss' turn to Maimonides followed from his discovery that the modern Jewish thinkers do not offer any adequate solutions to the grave crisis in which modern Jews and Judaism are immersed. In fact, the return to Maimonides was for Strauss correlated with a growing awareness of the problematic character of modern reason, as well as with his progressive inclination to explore the possibility of a return to the classical reason to which Maimonides himself adhered. ;It is further argued in this thesis that the Jewish thought of Leo Strauss on Maimonides passed through three distinguishable stages in a development best characterized as a "continuous, deepening process." These three stages are associated with Strauss' three essential views of Maimonides: as philosophical theologian, as Platonic philosopher-statesman, and as esoteric writer. Indeed, it is our chief thrust to prove that passing through these stages was crucially significant for Strauss' development, the comprehension of which is essential for the adequate appreciation of the lasting achievement of Strauss as a student of Maimonides. Although important questions undoubtedly remain about the adequacy of Strauss' own resolution to the modern crisis in both philosophical and Jewish terms, this work attempts to pave the way for a critical evaluation of the standing of Strauss' own Jewish thought as a putative guide for the perplexed of our time