Dr Raphael Dascalu

BA, MA, PhD
Senior Research Fellow in the History of Jewish Philosophy, Centre for the History of Philosophy

Email: raphael.dascalu@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Raphael Dascalu is Senior Research Fellow in the History of Jewish Philosophy in the Notre Dame Centre for the History of Philosophy, and an Adjunct Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University. He completed his PhD at the University of Chicago (2016), his MA in Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his BA at the University of Sydney.

  • Research Expertise and Supervision

    Raphael’s research focuses on the history of philosophy, religion, and mysticism, with an emphasis on Jewish philosophy and mysticism in the medieval Islamic world. His research seeks to situate the study of Jewish thought within its broader cultural context, both against the background of its historical antecedents and within its contemporary intellectual and literary landscape.

  • Books

    • Philosophy in Scripture: Jewish Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Late Medieval Period, eds. Paul B. Fenton and Raphael Dascalu. Brill (Études sur le Judaïsme Médiéval), forthcoming.
    • Melila Hellner-Eshed, Seekers of the Face: The Secrets of the Zohar’s Idra Rabba. Trans. Raphael Dascalu. Stanford University Press, 2021.
    • A Philosopher of Scripture: The Exegesis and Thought of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi. Brill (Études sur le Judaïsme Médiéval), 2019.
    • The Karaite Creed and Discourse on Slaughter by Israel ha-Dayyan ha-Ma‘aravi (al-Maghribī). Critical text edited with introductions by Raphael Dascalu, trans. Raphael Dascalu with James Walker. The Karaite Press, 2018.

  • Journal Articles

    • “‘You who slumber: Awaken!’ Jewish-Muslim philosophical encounters in late-medieval Syria,” in Global Intellectual History (January 2022)
    • “Revisiting the Qur’anic aḥbār in Historical Context,” in Journal of Qur’anic Studies 23:2 (2021)
    • “Between Intellect and Intoxication: An Exploration of Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi’s Commentary to the Book of Jonah,” in Jewish Quarterly Review 105:1 (Winter 2015), 42-71

  • Book Chapters

    • “Popularising Philosophical Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible: The Case of Sa‘īd b. Dāwūd al-‘Adanī (d. c. 1490),” in Philosophy in Scripture: Jewish Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Late Medieval Period, eds. Paul B. Fenton and Raphael Dascalu (Brill [Études sur le Judaïsme Médiéval]: forthcoming)
    • “Salvation/Soteriology in Judaism,” in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion, eds. Stewart Goetz, Charles Taliaferro, et al. Wiley-Blackwell (2021).
    • “Biblical Commentaries as a Genre of Jewish Philosophical Writing,” in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Its Literary Forms, eds. Aaron Hughes and James T. Robinson (Indiana University Press: 2019)
    • “Imago and imitatio: Perfection of the individual and society in Maimonides’ theory of religious law,” in Law, Religion, and Love: Seeking Ecumenical Justice for the Other, eds. Paul Babie and Vanja-Ivan Savić (Routledge: 2018), 266-288

  • Book Reviews

    • Menachem Kellner, We Are Not Alone: A Maimonidean Theology of the Other (Academic Studies Press: 2021). In Journal of Religious History 46:3 (2022), 605-608.
    • Walter Homolka, Jesus Reclaimed: Jewish Perspectives on the Nazarene, trans. Ingrid Shafer (Berghan Books: 2015). In Journal of Religious History 43:1 (2019), 121-123.