Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/143

Rh God left man to discover for himself. In the mind of Maimonides, Moses and Aristotle occupied pedestals side by side. In the “Strong Hand,” he had codified and given orderly arrangement to Judaism as revealed in Bible and tradition; he would now examine its relations to reason, would compare its results with the data of philosophy. This he did in his “Guide of the Perplexed” (Morch Nebuchim). Maimoides here differed fundamentally from his immediate predecessors. Jehuda Halevi, in his Cuzari, was poet more than philosopher. The Cuzari was a dialogue based on the three principles, that God is revealed in history, that Jerusalem is the centre of the world, and that Israel is to the nations as the heart to the limbs. Jehuda Halevi supported these ideas with arguments deduced from the philosophy of his day, he used reason as the handmaid of theology. Maimonides, however, like Saadiah, recognized a higher function for reason. He placed rea-