Jacobson Metaphysics of the Profane

The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem
Erscheinungsjahr 2003
ISBN: 978-0-231-50153-8
Verlag: Columbia University Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten

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 Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

I Messianism
1. The Messianic Idea in Walter Benjamin's Early Writings
2. Gershom Scholem's Theological Politics
II On the Origins of Language and the True Names of Things
3. On the Origins of Language
4. Gershom Scholem and the Name of God
III Justice and Redemption
5. Prophetic Justice
6. 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.