An Approach To The Early Judaism Thinking Of Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss was known either as a scholar of the history of the political philosophy, or as a political philosopher, but is he also a Judaism scholar? Or even his Judaism research is the foundation of his philosophy thoughts?This paper tries to sort out the scholar development of his youth by studying his early writings, attempts to explain the trails of the development of his Judaism thoughts, the affection of his latter thoughts, and how the Judaism researches matching his thoughts as a whole. It contains 2 major chapters. The first chapter discusses the relationship between the Judaism thoughts of Strauss and Maimonides, indicating the reason why Strauss choosing Maimonides under that historical context, then interprets the unique understanding of Strauss from the point of view of Maimonides. The second chapter focuses on the course of events that Strauss starting from Cohen's interpretation of Spinoza, gradually moving close to Maimonides, and being ready for the religious critique of Spinoza, tries to show Strauss's progressive understanding of Maimonides in many aspects.