Peter W. Ochs

Peter Ochs
Born Peter W. Ochs
1950
Nationality American
Occupation Judaic studies professor
theologian
Spouse(s) Vanessa L. Ochs
Children Elizabeth
Juliana

Theological work

Language English
Main interests Jewish philosophy
Jewish theology
Philosophical theology
Pragmatism
Semiotics
Notable ideas Scriptural reasoning

Peter W. Ochs (born 1950)[1] is the Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has served since 1997. He is an influential thinker whose interests include Jewish philosophy and theology, modern and postmodern philosophical theology, pragmatism, and semiotics. Ochs coined the term "scriptural reasoning"[2] and is the co-founder (with Anglican theologian David F. Ford)[3] of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning,[4] which promotes interfaith dialog among Christians, Jews, and Muslims through scriptural study groups. He is also a co-founder of the Children of Abraham Institute, which promotes interfaith study and dialog among members of the Abrahamic religions.[5]

Biography

Ochs received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, and M.A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.[6] He has held teaching positions at Drew University, Colgate University, and the University of Maryland, College Park,[7] and has been a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem[8] and a visiting lecturer at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.[7]

In addition to teaching Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, Ochs directs Religious Studies graduate programs in "Scripture, Interpretation, and Practice", an interdisciplinary approach to the Abrahamic traditions.[9]

Ochs is a prolific author, having written around a dozen books and hundreds of articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is series co-editor (with Christian theologian Stanley Hauerwas) of Radical Traditions: Theology in a postcritical key, published by Westview Press/Harper Collins and SCM Press/Eerdmans,[10] and series co-editor (with Stanley Hauerwas and Ibrahim Moosa) of Encountering Traditions, published by Stanford University Press.[6]

Contribution

Scriptural reasoning

Ochs was one of the original members of a small group of Jewish philosophers who called themselves "textual reasoners".[11] Textual reasoning evolved into a larger movement which Ochs dubbed "scriptural reasoning", and Ochs co-founded the Society for Scriptural Reasoning in 1995 together with David F. Ford and Daniel W. Hardy.[12] The goal of the organization is to build consensus and promote reconciliation among Christians, Jews, and Muslims through shared discussion of the scriptures.[13] In a panel discussion on the Public Broadcasting Service with Muslim theologian Mehdi Aminrazavi, professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Ochs proposed scriptural reasoning as a new approach to achieving peace in the Arab–Israeli conflict. He observed that all the religious Muslims, Christians and Jews involved in the conflict worship the same God of Abraham, and therefore might be brought together "to share what they believe and to act in relation to what's going on".[14]

In 2008[6] Ochs founded and became the director of the "1000 Cities Project" for the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, with the goal of establishing Christian-Jewish-Muslim study groups throughout North America.[15]

Peirce, Pragmatism, and the Logic of Scripture

Ochs criticizes lingering elements of transcendentalism in Charles Peirce as a problematic (and un-pragmatic) conceptualism. Nevertheless, Ochs' own philosophy has a definite regressive ('transcendental') direction, but this regressive movement of thought is always made through abductions whose validity can only be demonstrated in their actual fruitfulness in the context of a particular community of inquiry. Ochs' pragmatism privileges the late Peirce of 1905 lectures on Pragmaticism and concomitant texts. For Ochs, Peirce's Critical Common-Sensism means that only real doubts may be productive of inquiry, and these doubts can be resolved only with respect to vague but indubitable habits. 'Indubitable' beliefs remain fallible, however, in the sense that later inquiry might give us cause to doubt them. For Ochs', then, the synthetic a priori is transformed into fallibilistic common-sense principles. Ochs also insists on a mathematical-diagrammatic dimension to Peirce's thought, a dimension that Ochs' theological interpreters have tended to neglect. Mathematics is the science of the possible (not, as for Kant, the science of the necessary forms of intuition, i.e. of real objects). All new ideas are, strictly speaking, mathematical; but these ideas can only be validly applied to real experience through the logic of scientific inquiry.

Ochs argues that Peirce discovers, late in his career, that pragmatism must always take the form of self-critique (which includes critique of Peirce's own historical roots—Kant, Descartes, scholastic). Textually, this claim is based largely on Peirce's genre choices: his use of autobiography to introduce his pragmaticism and his use of the dialogue form to present his pragmaticism as a response to the errors of would-be pragmatists. Philosophically, Ochs' insistence that inquiry be rooted in a particular community of inquiry seems itself to be rooted in a few basic features of Peirce's thought:

1. The insistence on real doubts, i.e. doubts that arise in the context of a particular organism's problem, ultimately manifested through some suffering. This problem will be context- and tradition-specific (although with greater or lesser generality).

2. The irreducibly vague character of signs, including our indubitable perceptions and corrective A-reasonings. Vague signs which 'await further determination in terms of some other signs' can only be determined in a particular context (which is to say, in a dialogic relation to other signs). For this reason, the clarification of vagueness cannot take place without specification of a particular context and a process that is semiotically equivalent to commentary.

Children of Abraham Institute

In 2002 Ochs co-founded and became co-director of The Children of Abraham Institute (CHAI), which promotes interfaith scriptural scholarship as a means for fostering peace and harmony. The institute maintains centers at the St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, London; the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme; and student study groups at the University of Cambridge, University of Virginia, and Eastern Mennonite University.[16]

Dabru Emet

Ochs was one of the four drafters (together with David Novak, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, and Michael Signer) of a full-page advertisement which appeared in the Sunday, 10 September 2000 edition of The New York Times, titled "Dabru Emet (Speak Truth): A Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity", which publicized eight theological statements.[17][18][19] The statement was signed by more than 150 rabbis and Jewish scholars from across the religious spectrum.[20]

Editorial work

Ochs is the founding editor of the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning, founded in 2001,[21] and editor and chair of the editorial board of the Journal of Textual Reasoning since 2002.[22]

Also in 2001, he founded and serves as co-editor for the electronic journal La Pensee Juive de Langue Francaise.[6] He is a member of the editorial board of Modern Theology (since 1993), Theology Today (since 2006), and CrossCurrents[23] (since 1991).[6]

Personal

He is married to Vanessa L. Ochs, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies Program at the University of Virginia and a published author.[24] They have two grown daughters, Elizabeth and Juliana.[25]

Publications

Books, monographs

Selected articles

Chapters

References

  1. Riggs, Thomas (2006). Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Religions and denominations. Thomson Gale. p. 439. ISBN 0-7876-6612-2.
  2. Hauerwas, Stanley (2008), "Why 'The Way the Words Run' Matters: Reflections on Becoming a 'Major Biblical Scholar'", in Wagner, J. Ross; Grieb, A. Katherine; Rowe, C. Kavin, The Word Leaps the Gap: Essays on Scripture and Theology in Honor of Richard B. Hays, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-8028-6356-0
  3. "David Ford and Peter Ochs: Community that’s not monochrome". Duke Divinity School. 4 August 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  4. "About Us". Society for Scriptural Reasoning. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  5. "About the Institute". The Children of Abraham Institute. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Peter Ochs". University of Virginia. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Peter Ochs". Santa Clara University. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  8. "Judaism and Christianity after the Holocaust". University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  9. "Peter Ochs, Ph.D.". Huffington Post. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  10. "Peter Ochs to Give K. Brooke Anderson Lecture, "Peace through Intimacy: Friendship among the Children of Abraham"". Brown University. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  11. Kepnes, Steven (2007). Jewish Liturgical Reasoning. Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-19-531381-X.
  12. Soulen, R. Kendall; Woodhead, Linda (2006). God and Human Dignity. William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. p. 147 (footnote 3). ISBN 0-8028-3395-0.
  13. "Cover: Scriptural Reasoning". Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  14. "Perspectives: Middle-East Conflict (Episode no. 948)". Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 28 July 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  15. "Jewish Studies Program 2009". University of Virginia. 2009. p. 5. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  16. "Children of Abraham Institute". Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. 9 August 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  17. Steinfels, Peter (23 September 2000). "Beliefs; Ten carefully worded paragraphs encourage Jews to consider a thoughtful response to changes in the relationship between Christianity and Judaism". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  18. Brownfeld, Allan (September–October 2000). "Jews Are Called Upon To Reassess Their Views of Christianity, Recognizing We Worship The Same God". American Council for Judaism. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  19. Nahshon, Gad. "After Years of Study: Historic Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity". Jewish Post of New York. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  20. "DABRU EMET: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity". National Jewish Scholars Project. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  21. "Journal of Scriptural Reasoning". University of Virginia. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  22. "Journal of Textual Reasoning". University of Virginia. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  23. "CrossCurrents: Advisory Board". Wiley-Blackwell. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  24. "Vanessa Ochs". University of Virginia. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  25. "Vanessa L. Ochs Biography". Amazon.com. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.

External links