"The academic study of Judaism requires a systematic inquiry into the history, literature, and religion - and eventually the theology - as revealed in the historical documents themselves. Under this premise, Three Questions of Formative Judaism encounters the canonical writings of Judaism in the context of their creation at a certain time and place. That is, the documents are first situated in history.

Next the literary character of the documents, whether poetry, law, interpretation, or dialectics, is analyzed and evaluated. How something is said thus becomes as important as what is said. Ultimately it must be acknowledged that the purpose of the history and the documentation of that history (literature) have a strictly religious construction. The religious nature of historical documents has shaped their function and meaning for subsequent and future generations of religious followers.

Bringing nearly fifty years of research to bear on these fundamental questions, Jacob Neusner challenges his readers to face the difficult, often unasked or neglected questions about the nature, background, and purposes of Rabbinic Judaism and rewards them with an enriched understanding and a stronger foundation for tackling the even more elusive questions concerning the theology of formative Judaism."--BOOK JACKET.