Martin Kavka

Martin Kavka's (Ph.D., Rice University) research over the last 25 years has treated how Jews in the modern West have appropriated, and resisted appropriating, various ideas and arguments in the canon of modern Western philosophy—or in other words, how Jews have articulated both their commonality with Western culture, as well as their difference from it. 

He is currently at work on two projects: (a) the long-gestating "The Perils of Covenant," an argument that the “covenant theology” that became popular in American Jewish thought after World War II is politically obsolete at a time when Jews’ and Americans’ “enemies” are no longer godless communists but other religionists, and (b) a project on Jewish philosophy’s attempts to resist Christian hegemony. Kavka's CV, accessible from this page, lists his articles and short pieces. Kavka is happy to send copies of his work to those who do not have access to various databases, journals or volumes.