Book Review - Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker
Sarah Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker. (Princeton University Press, 2009); Oliver Leaman, Moses Maimonides. (Routiedge, 1990); Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed. An Abridged Edition with Introduction and Commentary by Julius Gutman. Translated from the Arabic by Chaim Rabin. (Hackett Publishing Company,
1995).
In 2003 I received a letter from Dean Anne Koda of the School of Pharmacy, UC San Francisco, welcoming me to the "Half Century Club." Since I graduated in 1953, she was asking about my activities in the last 50 years. ln answer to her questions, I answered that in the last half century I had given up the practice Of pharmacy in dispensing medications. I added that in many ways I had followed in the footsteps of Moses ben Maimonides, the ... physician a11d philosopher andi''patron saint of pharmacy." While servinQ as a pharmacist in many hospitals and drug stores, I decided in 1955 to pursue theological and philosophical studies.
As an ordained clergy, I served in Hong Kong during 'World Refugee Year" in 1960 and later as chaplain and lecturer in religion and philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1965-1976). From Hong Kong to New York, my wife and I were in Sino-American relations through the churches in their respective countries (1976-1993).
Moses ben Maimonides (1135-1204) was a Sephardic Jew who grew up in Cordoba, Spain, when it was under the domination of Islam to which his family was "converted." Maimonides, however, persisted in expounding his faith in Judaism. He lived in a non-Jewish culture, so he wrote in the language and concepts of Islamic culture-namely, Arabic with Hebrew words, spending a full decade in producing Mishneh Torah which explained Jewish law. In addition he spent several years in writing Guide to the Perplexed, a purely philosophical treatise that is not only helpful to Jews, but also to other thoughtful people in the world as well.
Maimonides' chose Aristotelian philosophy because it is devoid of theological material over Neo Platoism because of its openness to concepts that are religious. ln his Guide, Maimonides emphasized the immateriality and the infinity of God, to show that material and finite humans can never fully fathom the mystery of deity, even with their best rationality
(although part of the animal kingdom, humans are much more superior because of their ability to think.as compared to other animals). Conventional wisdom has it among Maimonides scholars that Raman (as he was called) wrote about Judaism and other philosophies in the idiom of Islamic milieu for fear of persecution by the majority Muslims, but this is not true according to Oliver Leaman.
Maimonides was a true universal cosmopolitan of his time as well as true to his Jewish tradition; he wrote in the Islamic milieu in order to be understood. He even avoided the label of Judaism by "bracketing out" the name, according to Stroumsa. His ideas and arguments, which clearly originated within the Greek cultural milieu, yet equally possess a far wider relevance and interest to thinking people in the worldwide.
Cordoba, Spain, during Maimonides' time was dominated by the Islamic religion which also preserved the philosophy of the Greek tradition in all areas of life including mathematics, art, music, medicine, architecture, literature, and many other pursuits of humanity. In short, Maimonides was a bridge between Jerusalem and Athens through the medium of the Islamic worldview. His writing in Arabic was translated into Latin for the Christian West where the works of Aristotle are seen as the roots and foundations of all works of sciences and the humanities. More than eight centuries ago, Moses ben Maimonides provided the world with the creative tension between Faith and Reason, which in the West we are still debating. (In East Asia, however, such a creative tension between revelation and self-cultivation by human effort alone still needs further exploration.) Much to my surprise and delight, the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association Newsletter, Fall 2003 published my answer to Dean Koda in full.
— Franklin J. Woo