Dr. Jeremy Brown

In this ground-breaking study of the Jewish reception of the Copernican revolution, Jeremy Brown examines four hundred years of Jewish writings on the Copernican model. Brown shows the ways in which Jews ignored, rejected, or accepted the Copernican model, and the theological and societal underpinnings of their choices.

Throughout New Heavens and a New Earth are deft historical studies of such colorful figures as Joseph Delmedigo, the first Jewish Copernican and a student of Galileo's; Tuviah Cohen, who called Copernicus the "Son of Satan;" Zelig Slonimski, author of a collection of essays on Halley's Comet; and contemporary Jewish thinkers who use Einstein's Theory of Relativity to argue that the Earth does not actually revolve around the sun. Brown also provides insightful comparisons of concurrent Jewish and Christian writings on Copernicus, demonstrating that the Jewish reception of Copernicus was largely dependent on local factors and responses.

 The book concludes with the important lessons to be learned from the history of the Jewish reception of Copernican thought, and shows how religions make room for new scientific descriptions of reality while upholding their most cherished beliefs.

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Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, author of The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning

Jeremy Brown has written a deeply researched and insightful account of a fascinating chapter in the often-fraught encounter between religion and science: the impact of the Copernican revolution on Jewish thinkers from its first appearance to today. This is an enthralling work, a wonderful addition to scholarship on a subject that continues to engage us today.

Jonathan D. Sarna, Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University and Chief Historian, National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA

This fascinating volume offers both a definitive history of the Jewish encounter with Copernican thought and a carefully-nuanced analysis of how religion and science interact. A model study.

David B. Ruderman, Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe

New Heavens and a New Earth presents a fascinating study of a major subject of early modern and modern Jewish intellectual history. Jeremy Brown has written a comprehensive, intelligent, well researched, and well-written survey of the long history of Jewish responses to Copernicus. His masterful treatment of the subject is clearly the best written to date, revising, correcting, and significantly enlarging all previous accounts. Brown’s work is a major contribution not only to the history of Jewish thought on cosmology and science but is also important in providing scholars a comparative lens through which to consider Jewish responses with those already well-known within the Christian world and beyond.

...a major work of historical scholarship which is sure to provide a vital point of reference in the science-religion debate for years to come.

Read the Table of Contents and the Introduction.

Read the review in Theological Studies, Sept 2014. 75:3; 695.

Read the review in Jewish Action, Winter 2014.

Read the review from Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations, 2015.

Read the review from The Expository Times, 2015.

Read the review in Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, 2016.

Read the review in Religious Studies Review, 2016.

Read the French review in Review of Ecclesiastical History, 2017