Book excerpt: The 19th century neo-Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen has provided significant underpinnings for understanding Judaism as a religion with a rational and universal character, as a religion of hope for the future. Eva Jospe translates, introduces, and presents commentary on eight selected essays that constitute an introduction to Cohen's thought. This reprint edition comes more than twenty years after the book's first publication and remains a valued resource for introducing scholars, students, and lay readers alike to the work of this important Jewish thinker.