Beginning in each main subdivision with the teachings of the law and the prophets on the subject, he contrasts these teachings with the speculations of the philosophers and shows wherein the errors of the latter consist. He betrays Aristotelian influences and at times, especially in his discussion of the problems of creation, follows very closely the model of the more rationalistic Islamic theologians. Accept-, ing the philosophic doctrine of a ereatio ex nikilo, he proves its correctness from the use the word in Gen. i, 1, which he declares means creating something out of nothing. The doctrine of a creator as set' forth through revelation in the Old Testament is confirmed by reason which declares that creation implies a creator. Passing on to the more precise de termination of the attributes of the Creator, he polemicizes against the dualistic tenets of Zo• roastrianism, and against the trinitarian doctrine of Christianity in his endeavor to justify the conception of God as a unit. The divine laws as laid down in the Pentateuch, supplemented by oral tradition, are, according to Saadia, given in order to enable men to attain to the highest degree of blessedness; and while recognizing in the divine laws given to Israel two classes, (a) those suggested by reason and (b) those due to revelation, he shows by examples how the latter may likewise be explained by pure reason. Perhaps the most original feature in Saadia's philosophy is the manner in which he •endeavors to reconcile the doctrine of the freedom of the human will with the belief in the omniscience and omnipotence of God. He solves the problem by declaring that God could control the human will, but deliberately gave men.freedom, so that he might bear the responsibility for his acts. Suffering and trials are sent by God to man in order to bring him by spiritual discipline nearer to perfection. He criticizes the various theories proposed by philosophers and others as to the nature of the soul and declares it to be a fine substance created by God, and placed in the human body during its stay on earth. After its life on earth another existence is in store for the soul, but only after the number of the souls to be created has reached an end, when all souls are again united to their bodies. In this combination of the doctrine of immortality with the resurrection of the body, Saadia be trays the influence of Islamic theologians who postulated this doctrine on the basis of the pictures of Paradise drawn in the Koran. Saadia's Messianic beliefs accord with those in dicated in the Talmud, pbinting to the appear ance of the Messiah as a preliminary to the• resurrection of the dead. In the world to come the good and pious will receive their recompense for their acts and sufferings in this world. The influence of Sandia on his age was profound. Through his philosophy in conjunction with his polemical writings against the Karaites, the new sect received a blow from which it never recovered. -Jewish orthodoxy once more won the day, and it was not until the days of Mai monides that the soundness of Saadia's system was questioned.
Ibn Passing by some minor writ ers like Bachya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda who flourished at Saragossa in the first half of the 11th century and who largely on the basis of Saadia's religious philosophy developed a system of Jewish ethics in a work known as 'The Guide •to the Duties of the Heart' that repre sents a combination of Jewish doctrines with certain phases df Islamic mysticism, we reach in Solomon Ibn Gabirol (b. in Malaga about 1021; I. in Valencia about 1058) a thinker the first magnitude, whose chief work written in Arabic is 'The Fountain of Life.' Though its aim, is to reconcile the monotheistic doctrines of Judaism with the philosophy of Neo-Plato nism which Gabirol espoused in opposition to the prevailing Aristotelianism, its basis is essen tially philosophical rather than theological. Nor does the author lay any special stress' upon his Jewish beliefs, as a consequence of which the influence that he exerted upon the scholasticism of medimval Christianity was far greater than upon Jewish theology. The work consists of five treatises dealing respectively (1) with mat ter and form, (2) the substance underlying the corporeality of the world, (3) proofs of the existence of intermediaries between God and the physical world, (4) proofs that these inter mediaries' known as or (intelligible) substances are composed of matter and form, and (5) a treatise on universal matter and uni versal form. According to Gabirol's system,
everything that exists is embraced under these three categories: (1) God, which is the first substance, (2) the world, which is matter and form, and (3) will as intermediary between the two. Whether Gabirol connected with
divine attributes apart from an existence pure and simple is a question in regard to which opinions differ. The best authorities, however, incline to the view that Gabirol was an opponent of ascribing attributes to God as in gredient parts of his Being. Gabirol's chief model among the Greek Neo-Platonists is Plo tinus, though he knew this author through secondary sources only. In an ethical treatise entitled
Judah Halevi was born in Toledo toward the end of the 11th century, dying some time after 1140 during a journey to the Orient. He is more famous for his exquisite Hebrew poems —.both lyric and religious — than for his philos ophy. The tone, form and imagination of the poet color his views of life far more so than in the case of Ibn Gabirol. Hence, in his philosophic treatise, written in Arabic, but gen erally known by the title of the Hebrew trans lation as