Theology in the Responsa

Responsa are replies given byprominent rabbinic authorities to questions put to them by other scholars,asking for rulings on specific issues, generally of a practical nature. Theresponsa literature is thus a repository of the learning and sound sense ofsome of the greatest rabbinic authorities over a period of more than a thousandyears down to the present, and relates to all the countries where Jews havelived. Although most of the emphasis in the responsa literature is undoubtedlyon practice, nearly all the great compilations of responsa also containdiscussions of a theological nature since changing conditions posed problemsfor belief as well as practice.In this volume, first published in1975 and unrivalled in its treatment of the subject, Louis Jacobs examinesthose responsa in which theology is considered and highlights the changes thathave occurred in the theological principles affecting the rabbis' attitudes tosuch questions as life after death, reward and punishment, and the problem ofsuffering.