Include bibliografia e indice.

Book presentation -- Presentation of author -- Model case presentation: the sheitel crisis -- Avoda zara: introducing the category -- Avoda zara: mental attitudes -- Understanding Avoda zara: the Maimonidean model -- Avoda zara between Jews and Gentiles: Nachmanides' model -- Shituf: applying a construct of Christianity to Hinduism -- Shituf: critical and constructive reflections -- Thinking of Hinduism in light of Meiri -- Do Jews and Hindus worship the same God? -- From Hindu God to Hindu Gods: confronting the particularity of Hindu deities -- Revisiting the worship of images: glimpses of a future dialogue -- When is a religion Avoda zara? Beyond a global approach to Hinduism.

Jews often consider Hinduism to be Avoda Zara, idolatry, due to its worship of images and multiple gods. Closer study of Hinduism and of recent Jewish attitudes to it suggests the problem is far more complex. In the process of considering Hinduism's status as Avoda Zara, this book revisits the fundamental definitions of Avoda Zara and asks how we use the category. By appealing to the history of Judaism's view of Christianity, author Alon Goshen-Gottstein seeks to define what Avoda Zara is and how one might recognize the same God in different religions, despite legal definitions. Through a series of leading questions, the discussion moves from a blanket view of Hinduism as idolatry to a recognition that all religions have aspects that are idolatrous and non-idolatrous. Goshen-Gottstein explains how the category of idolatry itself must be viewed with more nuance. Introducing this nuance, he asserts, leads one away from a globalized view of an entire tradition in these terms.