Metaphysics of the Profane - The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem

Erscheinungsjahr 2003
ISBN: 978-0-231-12657-1
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 485 g

Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem are regarded as two of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Together they produced a dynamic body of ideas that has had a lasting impact on the study of religion, philosophy, and literary criticism.

Drawing from Benjamin's and Scholem's ideas on messianism, language, and divine justice, this book traces the intellectual exchange through the early decades of the twentieth century from Berlin, Bern, and Munich in the throws of war and revolution to Scholem's departure for Palestine in 1923. It begins with a close reading of Benjamin's early writings and a study of Scholem's theological politics, followed by an examination of Benjamin's proposals on language and the influence these ideas had on Scholem's scholarship on Jewish mysticism. From there the book turns to their ideas on divine justice from Benjamin's critique of original sin and violence to Scholem's application of the categories to the prophets and Bolshevism. Metaphysics of the Profane is the first book to make this early period available to a wider audience, revealing the intricate structure of this early intellectual partnership on politics and theology.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jacobson, Eric

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Christliche Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politikberatung
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I. Messianism1. The Messianic Idea in Walter Benjamin's Early Writings2. Gershom Scholem's Theological PoliticsII. On the Origins of Language and the True Names of Things3. On the Origins of Language4. Gershom Scholem and the Name of GodIII. Justice and Redemption5. Prophetic Justice6. Judgment, Violence, and Redemption

Über Autor(innen)

Eric Jacobson is Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies and chair of Theology and Religious Studies at Roehampton University London.