Judaism and the West

Robert Erlewine

Description

Grappling with the place of Jewish philosophy at the margin of religious studies, Robert Erlewine examines the work of five Jewish philosophers—Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik—to bring them into dialogue within the discipline. Emphasizing the tenuous place of Jews in European, and particularly German, culture, Erlewine unapologetically contextualizes Jewish philosophy as part of the West. He teases out the antagonistic and overlapping attempts of Jewish thinkers to elucidate the philosophical and cultural meaning of Judaism when others sought to deny and even expel Jewish influences. By reading the canon of Jewish philosophy in this new light, Erlewine offers insight into how Jewish thinkers used religion to assert their individuality and modernity.

Introduction
1. Exemplarity and the German-Jewish Symbiosis: Hermann Cohen on War and Religion
2. Symbol not Sacrifice: Cohen's Jewish Jesus
3. Fire, Rays, and the Dark: Rosenzweig and the Oriental/Occidental Divide
4. Redeeming this World: Buber's Judaism and the Sanctity of Immanence
5. Prophets, Prophecy and Divine Wrath: Heschel and the God of Pathos
6. Cultivating Objectivity: Soloveitchik, The Marburg School, and the Religious Pluralism
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Jewish Studies
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Judaísmo
• Religious studies
• Joseph B. Soloveitchik
• Philosophy of religion
• Judaism
• Hermann Cohen
• Judaïsme

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 08 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253022394
• Langue: English

Extrait

JUDAISM AND THE WEST
NEW JEWISH PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT
Zachary J. Braiterman
JUDAISM AND THE WEST
From Hermann Cohen to Joseph Soloveitchik
Robert Erlewine
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by Robert Erlewine
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Erlewine, Robert, author.
Title: Judaism and the west: from Hermann Cohen to Joseph Soloveitchik / Robert Erlewine.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2016. | Series: New Jewish Philosophy and Thought | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016011857 | ISBN 9780253022257 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253022394 eb
Subjects: Jewish philosophy-Germany-19th century. | Jewish philosophy-Germany-20th century. | Judaism-History-19th century. | Judaism-History-20th century.
Classification: LCC B5800 .E75 2016 | LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046060
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To the memory of Alan Paskow, whose classes-and whose example-convinced me of the tremendous excitement of the life of the mind .
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Exemplarity and the German-Jewish Symbiosis: Hermann Cohen on War and Religion
2 Symbol Not Sacrifice: Cohen s Jewish Jesus
3 Fire, Rays, and the Dark: Rosenzweig and the Oriental/Occidental Divide
4 Redeeming This World: Buber s Judaism and the Sanctity of Immanence
5 Prophets, Prophecy, and Divine Wrath: Heschel and the God of Pathos
6 Cultivating Objectivity: Soloveitchik, the Marburg School, and Religious Pluralism
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
I N MANY WAYS , this book marks a methodological departure for me. I have always thought of myself as a philosopher of religion who happens to work primarily with Jewish thinkers. However, as I increasingly engaged the work of intellectual historians and became more invested in the origins of religious studies, I found my own approach to Jewish philosophy changing. Issues and concerns that I once relegated to the background now stand prominently in the foreground, shaping the manner I elaborate the trajectory of modern Jewish philosophy. This book is very much the result of embracing the porousness of the disciplinary boundaries between Jewish studies, religious studies, intellectual history, and philosophy. I have found that attending to the intersections between fields and subfields that are too often kept separate provides inspiration and resources for reading modern Jewish philosophy in new and challenging ways.
I would like to thank the Provost and Dean of Faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University, Jonathan Green, for providing much-needed funds for the production phase of this project. A 2013 Illinois Wesleyan Artistic and Scholarly Development grant helped fund research on the chapters dealing with Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig. I would also like to acknowledge receipt of a Re-centering the Humanities Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which facilitated the writing of chapter 5 , Prophets, Prophecy, and Divine Wrath: Heschel and the God of Pathos.
Numerous colleagues and friends have helped me at various stages in this project. I would like to thank Dustin Atlas, Zachary Braiterman, and Bruce Rosenstock for reading various chapters and providing valuable feedback. I am also grateful to Adam Woodis for his help with many difficult translations. Martin Kavka and Aaron Hughes who, in different ways and in different capacities, have problematized the relationship between religious studies methodology and Jewish philosophy, have left an indelible mark on this monograph. Martin Kavka has patiently read many drafts of chapters and answered countless questions of mine, all with patience, generosity, and wit. Aaron Hughes, who was one of the reviewers of the book, not only offered a great deal of valuable feedback but also read subsequent drafts of the introduction and conclusion. His encouragement and his suggestions have helped me make the work bolder and more decisive.
During much of the time writing this monograph I worked as managing editor of the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy . This brought with it the privilege of working closely with Elliot Wolfson, the editor-in-chief. In addition to the impact that his work has had on my own, our conversations about Continental philosophy, Jewish philosophy, and religious studies have left a deep impression on my thinking and have certainly found their way into this book.
Perhaps the single most important influence on the shape of this book is the work-and person-of Susannah Heschel. The more I engaged her scholarship on the significance of Jesus for modern Jewish thought and the manner in which the figure of Jesus linked Jewish and Christian thought in modernity, the more I came to see the embeddedness of modern Jewish philosophy in a network of discourses as central to its significance, rather than just a curiosity of mere historical importance. Above and beyond this, I am fortunate enough to count Susannah as a friend and mentor. Perhaps more than anyone else, she has pushed me to think about issues from points of view that were often quite foreign to my own training, and she has repeatedly exposed me to scholarly discussions that were previously unknown to me.
Family has also played an important role in the writing of this book. I would like to thank my parents and my brother for their willingness to listen to sundry details of this book project as it has developed. I am so grateful to my wife Molly for her companionship, commiseration, and support. Finally, I would like to thank my daughter Ada for all the trips to the zoo to see the sloth.
JUDAISM AND THE WEST
Introduction
Difference and Continuity in Modern Jewish Philosophy
Modern jewish philosophy is a subject that is often misunderstood-even by those whose job it is to study it. Scholars of modern Jewish philosophy scrutinize the works of philosophers in the canon because we see these thinkers as ultimately sharing the same set of problems and concerns as ourselves, even if we inhabit significantly different worlds. 1 We view these thinkers as engaged in an activity similar to the one with which we grapple-usually something like the struggle to harmonize visions of traditional Jewish teachings and beliefs with modern sensibilities. By studying these philosophers, we believe we can draw lessons for today; with enough tinkering we can refine their arguments about Judaism or the good, the true, and the beautiful into something that is tenable today. They are the sources with and through which we think and articulate our stances regarding Judaism and modernity.
By and large, contemporary approaches to the field of modern Jewish philosophy fail to attend to the distance and difference that separate current sensibilities from the major figures and works comprising its canon, and as a result they obscure something vital. The works of this canon demonstrate a ferocity and bellicosity toward Christianity that is all too often concealed or minimized by the philosophers who study them. 2 Rather than the clich s of futile, apologetic pleading for acceptance-or, in a more charitable assessment, the attempt to maintain dignity in the face of contempt-what we actually find in these works are active attempts to position Judaism as the beating heart of Western civilization at the expense of Christianity.
Perhaps it is because the canon looms so large in our own thinking that our discipline so rarely meditates on its distance or strangeness from us. To be sure, it is generally recognized that whereas today Jewish philosophy and Jewish Studies are accepted fields within the academy, our forebears philosophized about Judaism from a defensive position, working to counter the charges raised against it by its cultured despisers. And yet, the impact of this aspect of the canon is ignored or downplayed again and again because we assume that we share with these central thinkers the same fundamental understanding of the nature of modern Jewish philosophy. 3 By this I do not mean we necessarily assume that we share their metaphysical sensibilities or even share an understanding of how best to characterize Judaism. Rather, I mean that we assume that we share an understanding of what the task of modern Jewish philosophy consists in and that we need to simply continue in the footsteps of our predecessors. However, this is not the case. 4
This book examines the work of five Jewish philosophers-Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), Martin Buber (1878-1965), Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929), Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), and Joseph Soloveitchik (1903-1993)-over a span of roughly fifty years. The texts I study were published between 1914 and 1966, although my primary focus is on works written during the late 1910s through the 1940s. Using what I term the world religions discourse as an entering wedge into the respective philosophical projects of these thinkers, I highlight the critical, bellicose dimension of modern Jewish philosophy, particularly German Jewish philosophy. What I want the reader to take away from this book is the signif