Buber as an Historian of Religion: Presence, not gnosis/ Buber, historien de la Religion: Présence et non gnose - article ; n°1 ; vol.101, pg 87-105

Guy G.Stroumsa

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1998 - Volume 101 - Numéro 1 - Pages 87-105
El artícula analiza los diferentes modos de Martin Buber de interesarse por los fenómenos religiosos. Buber fue un pensador difícil de calificar : filósofo del diálogo, profeta de una renovación judía al nivel cultural y religioso, se apasionó también por el estudio histórico y sistemático de las religiones. Hasta 1933, enseñó Historia de las Religiones en la universidad de Frankfurt.
El análisis de sus notas de cursos y de varios cuadernos, conservados en los Archivos Martin Buber, precisa las informaciones encontradas en sus obras publicadas, y permite de manera bastante precisa dar cuenta de lo que Buber quisó plantear como historiador de las religiones. El pensamiento de Buber sigue las huellas de la fenomenologia de las religiones. Es precisamente su interés meta-histórico que délimita su aporte a la historia de las religiones.
The article analyses the various modes of Martin Buber's powerful and long lasting interest for religious phenomena. Buber was a thinker in a class of his own: philosopher of the dialogue, prophet of a cultural and religious renewal of the Jews, he remained also fascinated by the historical and systematic study of religions. Until 1933, he even taught this subject at the University of Frankfurt. The analysis of his course notes and of various booknotes kept in the Martin Buber Archives supplement the informations given in his published works, and permit to draw a rather precise image of the questions which interested Buber as an historian of religion. Buber's approach is mainly that of a phenomenologist of religion. It is precisely his meta-historical interests which limit the importance of his contribution for the history of religion.
L'article analyse les divers modes de l'intérêt puissant porté par Martin Buber pour les phénomènes religieux. Buber était un penseur difficilement classable : philosophe du dialogue, prophète d'un renouveau juif culturel et religieux, il fut aussi passionné par l'étude historique et systématique des religions. Jusqu'en 1933, il enseigna l'histoire des religions à l'université de Francfort. L'analyse de ses notes de cours et de divers cahiers, conservés dans les Archives Martin Buber, supplée aux indications données par ses écrits publiés, et permet de dresser une image assez précise des questions qui intéressaient Buber en tant qu'historien des religions. L'approche de Buber s'inscrit dans le sillage de la phénoménologie des religions. C'est précisément son intérêt méta-historique qui trace les limites de sa contribution à l'histoire des religions.
19 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1998
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Guy G. Stroumsa
Buber as an Historian of Religion: Presence, not gnosis/ Buber,
historien de la Religion: Présence et non gnose
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 101, 1998. pp. 87-105.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Stroumsa Guy G. Buber as an Historian of Religion: Presence, not gnosis/ Buber, historien de la Religion: Présence et non
gnose. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 101, 1998. pp. 87-105.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1998.1206
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1998_num_101_1_1206Resumen
El artícula analiza los diferentes modos de Martin Buber de interesarse por los fenómenos religiosos.
Buber fue un pensador difícil de calificar : filósofo del diálogo, profeta de una renovación judía al nivel
cultural y religioso, se apasionó también por el estudio histórico y sistemático de las religiones. Hasta
1933, enseñó Historia de las Religiones en la universidad de Frankfurt.
El análisis de sus notas de cursos y de varios cuadernos, conservados en los Archivos Martin Buber,
precisa las informaciones encontradas en sus obras publicadas, y permite de manera bastante precisa
dar cuenta de lo que Buber quisó plantear como historiador de las religiones. El pensamiento de Buber
sigue las huellas de la fenomenologia de las religiones. Es precisamente su interés meta-histórico que
délimita su aporte a la historia de las religiones.
Abstract
The article analyses the various modes of Martin Buber's powerful and long lasting interest for religious
phenomena. Buber was a thinker in a class of his own: philosopher of the dialogue, prophet of a cultural
and religious renewal of the Jews, he remained also fascinated by the historical and systematic study of
religions. Until 1933, he even taught this subject at the University of Frankfurt. The analysis of his
course notes and of various booknotes kept in the Martin Buber Archives supplement the informations
given in his published works, and permit to draw a rather precise image of the questions which
interested Buber as an historian of religion. Buber's approach is mainly that of a phenomenologist of
religion. It is precisely his meta-historical interests which limit the importance of his contribution for the
history of religion.
Résumé
L'article analyse les divers modes de l'intérêt puissant porté par Martin Buber pour les phénomènes
religieux. Buber était un penseur difficilement classable : philosophe du dialogue, prophète d'un
renouveau juif culturel et religieux, il fut aussi passionné par l'étude historique et systématique des
religions. Jusqu'en 1933, il enseigna l'histoire des religions à l'université de Francfort. L'analyse de ses
notes de cours et de divers cahiers, conservés dans les Archives Martin Buber, supplée aux indications
données par ses écrits publiés, et permet de dresser une image assez précise des questions qui
intéressaient Buber en tant qu'historien des religions. L'approche de Buber s'inscrit dans le sillage de la
phénoménologie des religions. C'est précisément son intérêt méta-historique qui trace les limites de sa
contribution à l'histoire des religions.Arch de Sc soc des Rel. 1998 707 janvier-mars 87-105
Guy STROUMSA
BUBER AS AN HISTORIAN OF RELIGION
PRESENCE NOT GNOSIS
For Margot Cohn
INTEREST IN RELIGION
Die Welt ist dem Mensch zwiefältig nach seiner zwiefältigen Haltung
The world is twofold for man due to the twofold attitude in an
approximative translation In nutshell the first sentence of Ich und Du
embodies one of Martin most important insights in his perception of
reality Due to the very nature of language the world is experienced by man
in fundamentally dual way This given fact however is not to be accepted
as inescapable Indeed the last word of most famous book is Erlö
sung The way from the initial recognition of dualism to the final utopian
escape from it is also the path followed by Buber in his whole life and
thought
Ich und Du has been more carefully read and analyzed than any other
work of Buber Yet an essential dimension of the book has been consistently
ignored fact which has brought as its sequel major misunderstanding of
the place and meaning in thought
That Buber kept throughout his life keen interest in religion is fact
that needs no further argumentation The question however is the mode of
this interest Was Buber primarily Jewish theologian as theologians mainly
Christian Protestant theologians argue Or was he foremost philosopher
of the existentialist branch and of the religious persuasion as some philoso
phers claim Buber of course despised such qualifications In Nietzschean
fashion he intended to be creative thinker awakening sleeping souls main
ly Jewish ones through his spiritual brand of Zionism) to the appeal of deeper
reality He also believed that eventually the new Jewish spirit to be born
We know the depth of influence on the young Buber who translated part
of the Also sprach Zarathustra into Polish previous version of this paper was read
at Symposium commemorating twenty five years of death at the Israel National Aca
demy of Sciences and Humanities in July 1991 wish to acknowledge the help of Margot
Cohn and Paul Mendes Flohr am also deeply endebted to the late Willi Schottroff for his
numerous and important remarks
87 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
from the ashes of moribund fossilized Rabbinic Judaism would erase tra
ditional boundaries between the holy and the profane In sense then Buber
was hoping for Hegelian Aufhebung of religion Throughout his life
religion remained for him major category albeit an ambivalent one Buber
knew that in order to understand Judaism one had to approach it not only
but mainly as religion That meant with the tools developed by students
of comparative In any case in order to achieve his ultimate goal
Buber also considered himself an historian of religion It is this side of his
intellectual personality which has not been considered seriously enough and
which opens new vistas for understanding his thought that intend to discuss
here
The purpose of the following pages is to shed some light on
self-perception as an historian of religion to analyze this self-perception in
intellectual context and to raise the issue of influence or lack thereof
as an historian of religion actually is rather misleading term
and is used here for the lack of better word in English It would be more
correct to refer to Buber as to Religionswissenschaftler although even this
term should be qualified Students of religion in the early twentieth century
were sometimes rather careless about the historical context of phenomena
and Buber was no exception He usually showed little interest for the minutiae
of historical research although this is not always the case most notably so
in his Königtum Gottes deep interest in religious phenomena from
all cultural backgrounds and for their study through most methods available
at the time is obvious This fact may be easily confirmed from the thou
sands of volumes in his library of which he took the pains to draw list in
hefty notebook The black alphabetical notebook entitled Religionskunde
Religionsphilosophie und verwandte Gebiete includes 440 pages estimate
there are approximately fifteen titles listed per page which gives more than
6000 titles including offprints All these titles were in library in
Heppenheim It should be noted that this notebook is the only one of its
As for instance in the following sentence Das Wichtigste am Chassidismus ist heute
wie damals die starke und sowohl im persönlichen Dasein als in dem der Gemeinden bewährte
Tendenz die fundamentale Scheidung zwischen dem Heiligen und dem Profanen immer mehr
zu überwinden Der Chassidismus und der abendländische Mensch Merkur 10 1956 36
As Professor SCHOTTROFF pointed out to me the apparatus takes 68 out of the 221
pages of the first edition 1956 Buber obviously felt need for scholarly legitimation
notable exception is the psychology of religion and in particular Tiefenpsychologie
about which see below
Martin Buber Archives =MBA 87/10 See also Ms Var 350 65a/z which includes
various envelopes of different sizes containing notes on topics such as Männerbünde Myste
rienweihe Umkehr und Erneuerung bes im Judentum die Stammesweihe Bundesweihe Macht
weihe und Opferweihe die Taufe Johannes und Jesus Paulus die doppelte Christologie
Heimarmene etc. Also to be found under the same signature are various notebooks including
notes and quotations on various topics of the history of religion some of them obviously for
courses and lectures given by Buber at various dates Instances of such topics include die Wende
die Idee der Wiedergeburt der Glaube an die Wiedergeburt Buddhas Auseinandersetzungen
Schöpfungslieder der Polynesier Simon Magus Mithrasliturgie Mystik und Gnosis etc..
The library or most of it followed Buber to Palestine in 1938 and was reconstituted in
residence in Jerusalem until 1948 in Abu Tor