michael zank@bu: curriculum vitaeTrained in Protestant Theology and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Michael Zank teaches undergraduate courses on scripture and its reception in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions and he coordinates graduate studies in Philosophy of Religion.
Areas of research and publication: modern Jewish thought and philosophy (the philosophy of Hermann Cohen, the writings of Leo Strauss, the thought of Martin Buber, and the intellectual profile of Franz Rosenzweig); the Holocaust and its aftermath in German public and theological discourse and in the private lives of survivors; Jewish ethics; political theology; Jerusalem, past and present, as a symbol in the monotheistic traditions.
He is an active member of several societies dedicated to religious and philosophical scholarship and theological dialogue. A native Pfälzer and avid drummer, Zank lives in Brookline, Mass.
Current position
Associate Professor of Religion, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Boston University.
Director, Undergraduate Studies. Department of Religion. Boston University.
Education
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Brandeis University, 1988-94, PhD 1994.
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1982-83 and 86-87.
Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, 1981-86.Protestant Theology
Erstes Theologisches Examen, Ev. Kirche der Pfalz, Speyer, 1986.
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 1981-86.
Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, 1979-1981.
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 1978-79.Selected writings
"Holy City: Jerusalem in Time, Space, and the Imagination" in Transformations. Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy (Thematic issue on "Teaching the City"), Vol. XIX/1, 2008: 40-67.
"How Does One Become a Jewish Philosopher? Reflections on a Canonical Status" in Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (JSRI) volume 6, no. 18, Winter 2007.
Review of Leora Batnitzky, Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation (Cambridge University Press, 2006) in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2007).
"Zwischen den Stühlen. On the Taxonomic Anxieties of Modern Jewish Philosophy" in European Journal of Jewish Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, 2007, pp. 105-134.
"Politische Theologie als Genealogie. Anmerkungen zu Schmitt, Strauss, Peterson und Assmann"” in Fragen nach dem einen Gott. Die Monotheismusdebatte im Kontext, ed. Gesine Palmer. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007, 229-250.
“"Where Art Thou? Biblical Perspectives on Responsibility"” in Responsibility, ed. Barbara Darling-Smith, Rowman&Littlefield, 2007, pp. 63-76.
New Perspectives on Martin Buber [Religion in Philosophy and Theology, ed. Ingo Dalferth, vol. 22] Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006.
"Beyond the 'Theologico-Political Predicament:' Toward a Contextualization of the Early Strauss" Paper given at the APA Eastern Div. Mtg in New York, Dec. 2005 (pdf).
“The First Critical Edition of the Writings of Hermann Cohen” in EAJS newsletter 16 (Spring 2005), 48-58.
"The Ethics of Rebuke" in Textual Reasoning, Volume 4, Number 1 November, 2005.
"Jewish Ethics in a Modern World" in Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide, ed. Nicholas deLange and Miri Freud-Kandel. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 325-337.
“Arousing Suspicion Against a Prejudice: Leo Strauss and the Study of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed” in Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) - His Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Wirkungsgeschichte in Different Cultural Contexts, ed. by Görge K. Hasselhoff and Otfried Fraisse (Ex Oriente Lux: Rezeptionen und Exegesen als Traditionskritik, vol. 4) Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2004.
"The Ethics in Hermann Cohen's System of Philosophy" in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Volume 13, Numbers 1-3, 2004, pp. 1-15.
"Blasphemie und Säkularisation" in tr-deutsch (May 2004).
Martin Buber (2004) in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Norbert Samuelson, Revelation and the God of Israel," in Modern Judaism vol. 24, no. 1 (Febr. 2004): 93-100.
"Jüdische Religionsphilosophie als Apologie des Mosaismus" in Archivio di filosofia, 2003, (LXXI) Nr.1-3, pp. 173-182.
"The Rosenzweig-Rosenstock Triangle, or, What Can We Learn From Letters to Gritli?: A Review Essay" in Modern Judaism, vol. 23 nr. 1, February 2003, 74-98.
Leo Strauss: The Early Writings (1921-1932) (SUNY Series in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss, ed. Kenneth H. Green), Albany: SUNY Press, 2002.
"Franz Rosenzweig, the 1920s, and the
<email> moment of textual reasoning" in: Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study After Modernity, edited by Peter Ochs and Nancy Levene. London: SCM Press, 2002, pp. 229-250 .The Idea of Atonement in the Philosophy of Hermann Cohen Providence, Rhode Island: Brown Judaic Studies, 2000.
"The Rabbinic Epithet Gevurah" in Approaches to Ancient Judaism vol. 14, ed. Jacob Neusner (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), pp. 83-169.
"Goldhagen in Germany: Historians' Nightmare and Popular Hero. An Essay on the Reception of Hitler's Willing Executioners in Germany" in: Religious Studies Review, vol. 24 no. 3 (July 1998), 231-240.
EditorJournal for Jewish Thought and Philosophy (contributing editor).
Textual Reasoning deutsch (editor-in-chief).
LIT Verlag: Series editor: Religion in der pluralen Welt.Membership in Learned Societies
American Philosophical Association, American Academy of Religion, Association for Jewish Studies, Hermann Cohen Gesellschaft, International Franz Rosenzweig Society, Karl Jaspers Society of North America, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Juden und Christen am Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentag.
Teaching Awards
Outstanding Teaching in the College Honors Program, The College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University, 2006
Frank and Lynne Wisneski Award for Excellence in Teaching, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, Spring 2000
Updated Nov. 2009.