Philosophy and scripture. medieval jewish opinions on creation and the laws of nature

Abstract

This paper deals with one of the most controversial issues in Medieval thought: the question of whether or not creation out of the will of God entails occasionalism. An overview is provided of the approach to this topic by Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508), a polymath and a key figure in Jewish thought. Focusing on Abravanel’s assessment of creation out of nothing and annihilation of the cosmos in his theological treatises, and parallel assessment of an Aristotelian cosmos in his Forms of the Elements, this paper provides an example of Jewish thought about Scripture and Aristotelian philosophy between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.