Maimonides as a Jewish Theologian and Philosopher, — His importance for the religion and science of Juda- ism, and his influence upon their development, is so great that he truly deserves to be placed second only to Moses, the great lawgiver, himself. Maimonides first of all brouglit order into those almost boundless re- ceptacles of tradition, and the discussions and decisions to which they had given rise, which, without the remot- est attempt at system or method, lie scattered up and down the works of Haggada and Halacha — Midrash, Mishna, Talmuds. Imbued with the spirit of lucid Greek speculation, and the precision of logical thought of the Arabic Peripatetics, aided by an enormous knowl- edge, he became the founder of rational scriptural exe- gesis. The Bible, and all its written as well as implied precepts, he endeavored to explain by the light of rea- son, with which, as the highest divine gift in man, nothing really divine could, according to his theory, stand in real contradiction. The fundamental idea in his works is that the law was given to the Jews, not merely to train them to obedience, but also as a revela- tion of the highest truths, and that, therefore, fidelity to the law in action is by no means sufficient, but that the knowledge of the truth is also a religious duty. By this teaching he offered a powerful incitement to specu- lation in religious philosophy, yet he also contributed by his enunciation of definite articles of faith to a naf
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row determiaation of Jewish dogmas, although his o^vn investigations bear throughout a rationaUzing charac- ter. Maimonides is no friend to astrological mysticisms. We are only to believe that which is either attested by the senses, or strictly demonstrated by the understand- ing, or transmitted to us by prophets and godly men. In the province of Science he regards Aristotle as the most trustworthy leader, and only differs from him when the dogma requires it, as, especially, in the doc- trine of the creation and providential guidance of the world. Maimonides holds firmly to the belief (without which, in his opinion, the doctrines of inspiration and of miracles, as suspensions of natural laws, coidd not be maintained) that God called into existence out of noth- ing not only the form but also the matter of the world, the philosophical proofs to the contrary not appearing to him conclusive. If these proofs possessed mathemat- ical certainty, it would be necessary to interpret those passages in the Bible which appear to oppose them alle- gorically, which is now not admissible. Accordingly Maimonides condemns the hypothesis of the eternit}' of the world in the Aristotelian sense, or the doctrine that matter is eternal ab initio, and has always been the sub- stratum of an order or form arising from the tendency of all things to become like the eternal and divine Spir- it; "the Bible," he says, "teaches the temporal origin of the world." Less discordant with the teachings of the Bible, according to Maimonides, is the Platonic the- ory, which he interprets with the exactest strictness according to the literal sense of the dialogue Timceiis. He understands the theory as assuming that matter is eternal, but that the divinely-caused order, by the addi- tion of which to matter the world was formed, had a beginning in time. Yet he does not himself accept this theory, but adheres to the belief that matter was created by God. In Ethics, Maimonides, holding reason in man — if properly developed and tutored by divine revela- tion— to be the great touchstone for the right or wrong of individual deeds, fully allows the freedom of will, and, while he urges the necessity, nay, the merit of lis- tening, to a certain degree, to the promptings of na- ture, rigorously condemns a life of idle asceticism, and dreamy, albeit pious contemplation. No less is it, ac- cording to him, right ami praiseworthy to pay the ut- most attention to the healthy and vigorous development of the body, and the care of its preservation by the closest application to hygienic rules. Providence, he ar- gues, reigns in a certain — broad — manner over human- ity, and holds the sway over the destinies of nations; but he utterly denies its working in the single event that may befall the individual, who, subject above all to the great physical laws, must learn to understand and obey them, and to shape his mode of life and action in accordance v/ith existing conditions and circumstances — the study of natural science and medicine being there- fore a thing almost of necessity to everybody. The soul, and the soul only, is immortal, and the reward of virtue consists in its— strictly unbodily — bliss in a world to come; while the punishment of vice is the "loss of the soul." " Do not," says Maimonides, " allow thyself to be persuaded by fools that God predetermines who shall be rigliteous and who wicked. He who sins has only himself to blame for it, and he can do nothing better than speedily to change his course. God's omnipotence has bestowed freedom on man, and his omniscience fore- knows man's choice without guiding it. We should not choose the good, like children and ignorant people, from motives of reward or piniishment, but we should do goo(l for its own sake, and from love to God; still retribution does await the immortal soul in the future world." The resurrection of the hoili/ is treated by Mai- monides as being simply an"article of faith, which is not to be opix)sed,but which cannot be explained.