The Guide for the Perplexed

⚖The case for it

Eight hundred years ago a student wrote to his teacher that he could no longer hold scripture and philosophy in one head, and this book is the reply. Maimonides built the answer to be difficult, and its physics has long since fallen apart. The negative theology is what lasts: every positive thing you say about God makes him smaller, and honest silence carries more weight than praise. Aquinas read him closely enough to cite him by name, as Rabbi Moses. The student's problem is still your problem, and the answer he got is harder and better than what is on offer now.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Maimonides tells you in his introduction that he has hidden the real meaning behind deliberate contradictions, and he was not bluffing. Long stretches catalogue Hebrew homonyms one term at a time, the cosmology runs on celestial spheres, and without Aristotle and Torah already in your head, you are reading a lock without its key.

— the honest librarian