Page "Or Adonai" Paragraph 2

In the early medieval era there had been a tendency for some Jewish religious rationalists to reinterpret classical Jewish theology in the light of then-current philosophy, specifically neo-Aristotelian rationalism.

This was the program of Jewish rationalist philosophers such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides ( who was influenced by Ibn Sina aka Avicenna ), and Gersonides ( who was influenced by Ibn Roshd, aka Averroes ).

In the view of Crescas, this point of view often led to mistaken conclusions, and threatened to blur the distinctiveness of the Jewish faith.

He felt that this program reduced the doctrinal contents of Judaism to a surrogate of Aristotelian concepts.