Harry Austryn Wolfson (November 2, 1887–September 20, 1974) was a scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Department in the United States. He is best known for his seminal work on the Jewish philosopher Philo, but was the author of an astonishing variety and quantity of other works on Crescas, Averroes, Spinoza, the Kalam, the Church Fathers, and the foundations of Western religion. His greatest contribution may therefore have been in collapsing all the artificial barriers that isolated the study of Christian philosophy from Islamic philosophy from Jewish philosophy (Twersky 1975). Being the first Judaica scholar to progress through an entire career at a top-tier university (Mendes-Flohr 1998), in Wolfson is also represented the fulfillment of the goals of the 19th-century Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... Jewish studies also known as Judaic studies is a subject area of study available at many colleges and universities in the Western World. ... Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judaeus And as Yedidia, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (c. ... Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher and physician, a master of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, and medicine. ... Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Kalam (علم الكلم)is one of the religious sciences of Islam. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers... The term Western Religion refers to those religions that originated in the Western Roman Empire, such as as seen in Roman religion, Nordic religion, etc. ... It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Filled with OR and completely unsourced. ... Islamic philosophy (الفلسفة الإسلامية) is a branch of Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between philosophy (reason) and the religious teachings of Islam (faith). ... Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. ... For a discussion of Jews as an ethnicity or ethnic group see the article on Jew. ... Wissenschaft des Judentums (the science of Judaism), refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions. ...

Biography

Wolfson was born in Ostrin, Lithuania, and in his youth he studied at the Slabodka Yeshiva under Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein. In September 1908, he arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and earned his bachelors degree and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he remained (excepting the years 1912–1914) for the rest of his career. He's my great great uncle! Slabodka yeshiva (Knesset Yisrael), was known colloquially as the mother of yeshivas (rabbinical seminaries). ... Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein is a Talmudist and the Rosh Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva. ... Location in Middlesex County in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country State County Middlesex Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-City Council  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Wolfson was a professor at Harvard University for approximately half a century, and was a student and friend both of George Santayana and George Foot Moore. He received honorary degrees from 10 different universities (Twersky 1975), and was a founding member and president of the American Academy for Jewish Research. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 20, 1974. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... George Santayana George Santayana (December 16, 1863, Madrid – September 26, 1952, Rome), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. ... George F. Moore (1887 - 1949), as a Major General in the US Army, was the commander of the Harbor Defences of Manila and Subic Bays, the Philippines, at the time of the 1941 Japanese invasion. ... Location in Middlesex County in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country State County Middlesex Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-City Council  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ... is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ...

Works

Title page of Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy by Harry Austryn Wolfson (1947).

Wolfson was a tireless scholar. About him Twersky (1975) writes, "He was reminiscent of an old-fashioned gaon, transposed into a modern university setting, studying day and night, resisting presumtive attractions and distractions, honors and chores, with a tenacity which sometimes seemed awkward and antisocial." He spent vast amounts of time secluded in the Widener Library pursuing his research. Schwarz (1965) writes that even in his retirement, Wolfson was "still the first person to enter Widener library in the morning and the last to leave it at night." Image File history File links Size of this preview: 383 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (806 × 1,262 pixels, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 383 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (806 × 1,262 pixels, file size: 1. ... Geonim (also Gaonim) (גאונים) (Singular: Gaon [גאון] meaning Genius in Hebrew) were the rabbis who were the Jewish Talmudic sages who were the generally accepted leaders of the Jewish community in the early medieval era. ... Old picture of the Widener Library. ...

Wolfson wrote works including a translation and commentary on Hasdai Crescas' Ohr Hashem, the philosophy of the church fathers, the repercussions of the Kalam on Judaism, and works on Spinoza, Philo, and Averroes. The best-known of these works are listed below, their publication in several instances—among them the work on Philo—having been considered scholarly events of the first magnitude. Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (c. ... Kalam (علم الكلم)is one of the religious sciences of Islam. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), known also as Philo of Alexandria and as Philo Judaeus And as Yedidia, was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt. ... Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher and physician, a master of philosophy and Islamic law, mathematics, and medicine. ...

• Crescas' Critique of Aristotle: Problems of Aristotle's Physics in Jewish and Arabic philosophy (1929)
• The Philosophy of Spinoza: Unfolding the Latent Processes of His Reasoning, Harvard University Press (1934/1962)
• Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Harvard University Press (1947)
• The Philosophy of the Church Fathers: Volume I Faith Trinity, Incarnation, Harvard University Press (1956)
• The Philosophy of the Kalam, Harvard University Press (1976)
• Repercussions of the Kalam in Jewish philosophy, Harvard University Press (1979)

A complete bibliography of Wolfson's work can be found in Schwarz (1965). He was known principally, as mentioned above, for crossing all artificial boundaries of scholarship, as best revealed by the titles of some of his papers:

• The meaning of "Ex Nihilo" in the Church Fathers, Arabic and Hebrew philosophy, and St. Thomas (1948)
• The internal senses in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew philosophical texts (1935)
• The amphibolous terms in Aristotle, Arabic philosophy, and Maimonides (1938)
• Solomon Pappenheim on time and space and his relation to Locke and Kant, pp. 426-440 in Jewish studies in memory of Israel Abrahams, Press of the Jewish Institute of Religion (1927)

Wolfson was additionally known as a "daring" scholar, one who was not afraid to put forward a bold hypothesis with limited evidential support. In his work Wolfson therefore often chooses bold conjecture over safe, but boring, analyses (Twersky 1975).

References

• Mendes-Flohr, Paul (1998), "Jewish scholarship as a vocation", written at Australia, in Alfred L. Ivry, Elliot R. Wolfson & Allan Arkush, Perspectives on Jewish Thought and Mysticism: Proceedings of the International Conference held by The Institute of Jewish Studies, University College London, 1994, in Celebration of its Fortieth Anniversary, Harwood Academic Publishers.

• Schwarz, Leo W. (1965), "A bibliographical essay", written at Jerusalem, in Lieberman, Saul, Harry Austryn Wolfson Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, American Academy for Jewish Research.

• Twersky, Isadore (1975), "Harry Austryn Wolfson, 1887–1974", Journal of the American Oriental Society 95 (2): 181–183.

Isadore Twersky (1930–October 12, 1997) was Nathan Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University. ...

See also

• Alexander Altmann
• Gershom Scholem
• Isadore Twersky