Maimonides and the Maimonidean Controversies

Abstract Maimonides (1138–1204) was an innovative Jewish legal scholar and important philosopher whose work permanently altered the ways in which Jews interpret and live their tradition. Controversy concerning Maimonides’s writing and teaching began in his lifetime. The controversies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries allow for an examination of the ways in which Jews around the world engaged with Maimonides’s thought during this period. Ever since the identification and publication of the relevant documents, scholars have continued to analyze and describe these early controversies from a variety of intellectual standpoints and with a range of methodological tools. This chapter will consider how these early controversies can help to better understand the processes by which Maimonidean teaching came to be understood as well as the ways in which philosophers continue to engage Maimonides today.