The Star of Redemption

Franz Rosenzweig, William W. Hallo

Description

The Star of Redemption is widely recognized as a key document of modern existential thought and a significant contribution to Jewish theology in the twentieth century. An affirmation of what Rosenzweig called “the new thinking,” the work ensconces common sense in the place of abstract, conceptual philosophizing and posits the validity of the concrete, individual human being over that of “humanity” in general. Fusing philosophy and theology, it assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world, and finds in both biblical religions approaches toward a comprehension of reality.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Theology
• Judaism
• Christianity
• Religion
• History

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 août 1985
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268161538
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE STAR OF REDEMPTION
THE STAR OF REDEMPTION
BY
Franz Rosenzweig

Translated from the Second Edition of 1930 by
WILLIAM W. HALLO
Ride forth victoriously for the cause of truth
Ps. 45:4 (RSV)
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME
Copyright 1970, 1971 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
University of Notre Dame Press edition 1985
Copyright 1985 University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
All Rights Reserved
www.undpress.nd.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
Reprinted in 1990, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2014
This edition is reprinted by arrangement with Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosenzweig, Franz, 1886-1929.
The star of redemption.
Reprint. Originally published: New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.
Translation of: Der Stern der Erl sung.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Judaism. 2. Cosmology. 3. Religion-Philosophy. 4. Philosophy, Jewish. I. Title
BM565.R613 1985 296.3 84-40833
ISBN 0-268-01717-4 (cl.)
ISBN 13: 978-0-268-01718-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 10: 0-268-01718-2 (pbk.)
ISBN 9780268161538
This book is printed on acid-free paper .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE
FOREWORD BY N. N. GLATZER
PART I THE ELEMENTS or THE EVER-ENDURING PROTO-COSMOS
INTRODUCTION : On the Possibility of the Cognition of the All
BOOK 1 God and His Being or Metaphysics
BOOK 2 The World and Its Meaning or Metalogic
BOOK 3 Man and His Self or Metaethics
TRANSITION
PART II THE COURSE or THE ALWAYS-RENEWED COSMOS
INTRODUCTION : On the Possibility of Experiencing Miracles
BOOK 1 Creation, or The Ever-Enduring Base of Things
BOOK 2 Revelation, or The Ever-Renewed Birth of the Soul
BOOK 3 Redemption, or The Eternal Future of the Kingdom
THRESHOLD
PART III THE CONFIGURATION or THE ETERNAL HYPER-COSMOS
INTRODUCTION : On the Possibility of Entreating the Kingdom
BOOK 1 The Fire, or The Eternal Life
BOOK 2 The Rays, or The Eternal Way
BOOK 3 The Star, or The Eternal Truth
GATE
INDICES
INDEX OF JEWISH SOURCES
INDEX OF NAMES
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE
The Star of Redemption is no ordinary book, and its translation is no ordinary task. To do it justice, the translator must approach it more like poetry than like a work of prose. The present translation attempts to retain the rhythmic cadences of the original while, at the same time, reducing its intricate and sometimes almost interminable sentences to manageable proportions. It is faithful to the original, except where a literal translation threatens to introduce ambiguities not intended in the original. Pronouns, for example, have frequently been replaced with their appropriate antecedents to compensate for the loss of inflectional precision common in English. Where the ambiguities are inherent in the German the translation strives to preserve them when it cannot adequately resolve them.
Rosenzweig s magnum opus is, furthermore, a veritable mosaic of citations and allusions. Many of these were identified by Nahum Glatzer in the indexes appended to the second edition which are reproduced, with some additions, here. In particular, Rosenzweig spoke the language of Goethe s Faust and other German classics. This language, familiar and pregnant with meaning for his contemporaries, calls for occasional glosses in a modern translation.
Rosenzweig s choice of words was judicious, and many of his points are inextricably imbedded in elaborate figures of speech, including numerous plays on words. Nor was he above taking liberties with the German language. In confronting the peculiarities of style and diction thus presented, the translator may well be guided by Rosenzweig s own principles of translation as set forth in Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung , and other essays on the translation of the Bible by Buber and Rosenzweig. The attempt has thus been made, albeit within severe limits, to translate identical German words into identical English words, and their derivatives into English derivatives; to reproduce the plays on words; to render unusual German words and forms into equally conspicuous English equivalents, even when this results in such desperate neologisms as selfication or factualize. Far as I am from attaining it, I have nevertheless striven for Rosenzweig s own ideal concept that the translator, the one who hears and transmits, knows himself equal to the one who first spoke and received the word (below, p. 366).
It is a pleasant duty to thank all those who have helped to make the translation possible: Mrs. Katharine S. Falk who, through the good offices of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, provided the material support; Mr. Rafael Rosenzweig, who buttressed an old friendship with trenchant advice; the Franz Rosenzweig Fellowship of New York, which has long made the translation of the Stern its major objective; Prof. Maurice Friedman, who first encouraged me to undertake the project; Prof. Nahum N. Glatzer, who guided its progress; and Mr. Joseph Cunneen, who saw it into print. My wife Edith has been a patient and unfailing support throughout the four years that the translation was in preparation, and the three further years that it was in process of publication. Above all, my thanks are due to my mother, Dr. Gertrude Hallo, who read the entire manuscript and supplied numerous invaluable suggestions. Her intimate acquaintance with Franz Rosenzweig, his language and his thought, saved the translation from many errors. Those that remain are exclusively my own responsibility. Hopefully they do not subvert the translator s aim: in Rosenzweig s own sense to Americanize The Star of Redemption -not merely to translate it but to naturalize it in a new environment so that it may help once more to sow the seeds of a rebirth of thoughtful belief.
Some portions of this translation have previously appeared in The Worlds of Existentialism: A Critical Reader , edited by Maurice Friedman (New York, Random House, 1964), pp. 327-329; in Christianity: Some Non-Christian Appraisals , edited by David W. McKain (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1964), pp. 191-203; and in Great Twentieth Century Jewish Philosophers: Shestov, Rosenzweig, Buber, with Selections from their Writings , edited by Bernard Martin (The Macmillan Company, 1970), pp. 163-195; others are based on the rendition in Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought , presented by Nahum N. Glatzer (New York, Schocken Books, 1953, 1961), pp. 292-341. These portions are reproduced here with minor modifications and by arrangement with the respective editors and publishers.
The second Notre Dame Press edition reproduces the corrected Beacon Press edition (1972) and incorporates some additional typographical corrections.
June 1990
W. W. H.
FOREWORD
by N. N. Glatzer
Franz Rosenzweig published his Stern der Erl sung without any explicatory matter; there was no introduction, no preface, no postscript, nothing that would give some inkling of the background and purpose of the work. Not even a publisher s note or jacket copy served to introduce, however briefly, the at-the-time-unknown author. The book, Rosenzweig felt, was to speak for itself; whoever was discontented with prevailing academic philosophies (and theologies) would find his way to it. Furthermore, he was deterred by prefaces to philosophical tomes and their authors clucking after having laid their egg and their discourteous, derogatory remarks directed to the reader who has done no wrong as yet, not even as much as reading the book. When, in 1925, four years after the publication of the Stern , Rosenzweig issued his Das neue Denken ( The New Thinking ), subtitled Some supplementary remarks to the Stern der Erl sung , he forbade publication of this essay in any further editions of the Stern , either as introduction or postscript.
It was therefore with considerable trepidation that I yielded to the proposal by the publisher of The Star of Redemption to write a prefatory note. For, though several books and a good number of studies and essays on Rosenzweig are now extant, acquaintance with his life and background cannot be taken for granted. Rosenzweig himself abandoned his original position of considering the Star strictly as a textus when, shortly before his death, he asked me to prepare an extensive list of references to his Judaic sources to be included in the second edition of the work.
Franz Rosenzweig was born December 25, 1886 in Cassel, Germany, as the only son of a well-to-do, assimilated Jewish family. From 1905-1907 the highly gifted boy studied medicine, followed by several years of study (to 1912) of modern history and philosophy, mainly under Friedrich Meinecke, historian in the Ranke tradition, and Heinrich R ckert. In 1910, he began work on a major research project anent Hegel s political doctrines and his concept of the state. One section of the investigation served as a doctoral dissertation (1912); the two-volume work, Hegel und der Staat ( Hegel and the State ), completed in 1914, appeared in 1920. In it, Rosenzweig, by means of the biographical approach, traces the dramatic development of Hegel s historical and political philosophy, a philosophy largely conditioned by Hegel s own life. While working on this project, Rosenzweig discovered (1913) a manuscript page in Hegel s handwriting, marked Essay on Ethics. Close analysis proved the page to be the oldest Systemprogramm of German Idealism, composed by Schelling rather than by Hegel; he published his findings later, in 1917.
The work on Hegel was sufficient testimony to Rosenzweig s mastery of historical research, his mature grasp of the historic process, and his grasp of the philosophical claim of German Idealism. And he was fully