Based on his 2017 Gifford Lectures, David Novak’s Athens and Jerusalem: God, Humans, and Nature is a comparative study of Jewish theology and Greek and German philosophy.

Its first chapter takes cues from Leo Strauss’ work on philosophy and theology; the second focuses on the relationship of God to nature; the third focuses on humans and nature; the fourth reads Philo of Alexandria in connection to Plato; the fifth takes up Maimonides’ usage of Aristotle’s causes; and the sixth and final chapter offers comparative readings of Immanuel Kant and Hermann Cohen, the latter bearing the former’s influence.