{"id":103102,"date":"2026-02-02T18:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103102\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:06:11","slug":"dr-marc-shapiros-9th-book-a-sacks-prize-finalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/103102\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Marc Shapiro\u2019s 9th Book a Sacks Prize Finalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recognized as one of the most important and original thinkers in Jewish history, Rav Kook\u2019s writings have been studied for generations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this area of scholarship, everyone is usually studying the same writings within the canon,\u201d said Marc B. Shapiro, Ph.D., professor and chair of theology and religious studies at The University of Scranton. \u201cThat\u2019s what people did (with Kook) for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, volumes of\u00a0additional\u00a0texts written but never\u00a0publicly released\u00a0by Kook, who died in 1935, have been uncovered in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>The recently discovered texts have allowed historians and researchers to further examine Kook, as Dr. Shapiro did in\u00a0his book,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Renewing-Old-Sanctifying-New-Civilization\/dp\/1802077332\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cRenewing the Old, Sanctifying the New: The Unique Vision of Rav Kook.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Released in 2025, Dr. Shapiro\u2019s ninth and newest book was honored as a finalist for the prestigious\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yu.edu\/sacks-center\/sacksbookprize\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Rabbi Sacks Book Prize<\/a>\u00a0from Yeshiva University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have new writings, which is causing us to rewrite his history and rewrite his thoughts,\u201d Dr. Shapiro said. \u201cThat is very exciting scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Shapiro described Kook as \u201can effervescent personality\u201d who was constantly thinking and\u00a0coming up with\u00a0new \u2014 often unconventional \u2014 ideas. Kook had strong opinions on science and religion, as well as morality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to this book\u2019s consideration for the Rabbi Sacks Book Prize, two of Dr. Shapiro\u2019s\u00a0previous\u00a0books were finalists for the National Jewish Book Award.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Shapiro, who has worked at The University of Scranton since 1996, is a graduate of Brandeis University. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he is scheduled to speak Feb. 20-21 at the Harvard Hillel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recognized as one of the most important and original thinkers in Jewish history, Rav Kook\u2019s writings have been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[30650,8090,49902,49901,49904,49903,178,180,179,274],"class_list":{"0":"post-103102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-author","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-judaic-studies","11":"tag-marc-shapiro","12":"tag-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks-herenstein-center","13":"tag-rav-kook","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-the-university-of-scranton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}