Education
Biography
Ronna Burger is the Catherine & Henry J. Gaisman Chair in the Department of Philosophy, Affiliate Faculty in Jewish Studies, and Director of the Religious Studies Minor. She is the author of books and articles on Plato and Aristotle as well as essays on Maimonides and the Hebrew Bible. She lectures widely at college campuses on biblical texts or figures, including Adam and Eve, Rebekah, Joseph, Moses, and Esther.
Books and Monographs:
- On Plato's Euthyphro (Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, 2015)
- Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: on the Nicomachean Ethics. (Chicago , 2008)
- The Phaedo: A Platonic Labyrinth. (Yale, 1984. Reprinted, St. Augustine's Press 1999, new edition forthcoming 2023)
- Plato's Phaedrus: A Defense of a Philosophic Art of Writing (Alabama, 1980)
- Co-editor, The Eccentric Core: the Thought of Seth Benardete (St. Augustine's Press, 2018)
- Co-editor, The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings in Ancient Poetry and Philosophy by Seth Benardete (St. Augustine's Press, 2012)
- Editor, Encounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete (Chicago, 2002)
Selected Articles:
- “Virtue and Self-Restraint: Maimonides' Dialogue with Aristotle in Eight Chapters,” Knowing and Being in Ancient Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)
- "Definitional Law in the Bible," in The Eccentric Core (St. Augustine's Press, 2018)
- “Women and Nature: the Female Drama in the Book of Genesis,” Athens, Arden, Jerusalem (Lexington Books, 2017)
- “Maimonides on Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Guide of the Perplexed I.2,” in Political Philosophy Cross-Examined (Palgrave Macmillan. 2013)
Recent Papers Presented:
- “The Fall from our Ancient Nature: Plato’s Aristophanic Speech on Eros and the Biblical Story of Adam and Eve,” Assumption College; Harvard Political Theory Colloquium, March 2018
- “Aristotle on Friendship, Philosophy, and the Metaphysics of Eros,” Keynote Speaker, Ancient Philosophy Society, April 2017.
- “In the Wilderness of Sinai: Moses as Lawgiver and Founder of a People,” Shalem Center, Jerusalem, summer 2013
Interests
A central concern of Professor Burger’s work is the relation between “Jerusalem and Athens,” or Bible and philosophy, as the two roots of the Western tradition. That is reflected in the series of courses she has been offering on topics such as “Women in the Bible,” “The Political World of the Bible,” or “The Problem of Evil.” In her courses on Jewish thought, Professor Burger takes up the medieval thinkers—Maimonides above all, in his great work The Guide of the Perplexed—who confronted the possible conflict of the Bible with science and philosophy.