Leo Strauss on Religion

Svetozar Y. Minkov is Professor of Philosophy at Roosevelt University and president of the Leo Strauss Foundation. He is author of Leo Strauss on Science: Thoughts on the Relation between Natural Science and Political Philosophy, also published by SUNY Press. Rasoul Namazi is Assistant Professor of Political Theory at Duke Kunshan University. He is author of Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought.

Acknowledgments

Series Editor's Introduction
Kenneth Hart Green

Editors' Introduction
Svetozar Y. Minkov and Rasoul Namazi

Part One

Transcript 1: Leo Strauss, Notes on Lessing's Nathan the Wise (1940 and 1942)

Reflections on Leo Strauss, His Notes on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and "Nathan der Weise"
Till Kinzel

Leo Strauss on the Philosophical Character of Lessing's Nathan The Wise
Martin D. Yaffe

Part Two

Transcript 2.1: Leo Strauss, On the Plan of the Kuzari (c. 1941—1942)

Transcript 2.2: Leo Strauss, On the Kuzari (c. 1941—1942)

On Yehuda Halevi's "Spiritual Hell"
Ralph Lerner

Proclaiming Dangerous Teachings to the World: Why Would Strauss Reveal the Religious Heterodoxy of the Falāsifa?
Alexander Orwin

Part Three

Transcript 3: Leo Strauss, "Abraham and Maimonides" (1953)

Dichotomies of Understanding Religious Law in Leo Strauss's Lecture "Abraham and Maimonides"
Yehuda Halper

Reason and Law
Joshua Parens

Part Four

Transcript 4: Leo Strauss, On Spinoza (c. 1959)

Strauss's "Fresh Study" Manuscript
Steven Frankel

The Charity of Spinoza's Democracy
Andrea E. Ray

Part Five

Transcript 5.1: Leo Strauss, Notes on Plato's Symposium (c. 1959)

Transcript 5.2: Leo Strauss, Notes on Agathon's Speech in Plato's Symposium (c. 1959)

Transcript 5.3: Leo Strauss, Two Letters on Plato's Symposium (1959)

Leo Strauss on Agathon's Theology in Plato's Symposium
Svetozar Y. Minkov

Leo Strauss's Intention with Plato's Symposium
Alex Priou

Part Six

Transcript 6: Leo Strauss, Selections from "Seminar in Political Philosophy: Rousseau" (1962)

Leo Strauss and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Ancients and Moderns, Esotericism, and the Challenge of Religion
Rasoul Namazi

"Truly a Civil Religion": Leo Strauss Teaches the Profession of Faith
John Ray

Part Seven

Transcript 7.1: "Religion and the Commonweal in the Tradition of Political Philosophy": The Lecture (1963)

Transcript 7.2: Leo Strauss, "Religion and the Commonweal": The Manuscript (1963)

Leo Strauss on Religion and the Commonweal
Nathan Tarcov

Leo Strauss on Civil Religion
Philipp von Wussow

Appendix: Strauss's Confrontation with Pascal
Svetozar Y. Minkov

Notes on Contributors
Index