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AbstractThe article discusses the central role of the history of religion in the debate on the so-called "crisis of historicism" during the first half of the twentieth century. I argue that the seemingly marginal question of how to write the history of religion informs major debates about the writing of history and history's place in culture. Focusing on Ernst Troeltsch's On Historical and Dogmatical Method in Theology (1900) and Rudolf Bultmann's History and Eschatology (1955), I analyze how theological and historical arguments and concepts interact in their respective histories of religion. According to Troeltsch, the methods of contemporary Religionsgeschichte (history of religion) undermine not only theological dogma but also such common historicist categories as "reason," "teleology," or "essence." Bultmann, using similar methods, develops a similar critique based on the idea of "historicity," i.e. an anthropological fundament of understanding oneself historically. Here too, the simple and linear understanding of history is called into question by a decidedly religious element, namely eschatology understood as a radically different temporality. Both cases thus show how tightly religious problems, theological arguments, and historical methods are interwoven, and how much our understanding of history, religion, and their mutual relations is informed by this entanglement.

The paper discusses Paul Tillich's changing conception of a "prophetic critique" of contemporary culture and society through the notion of a "kairos", the moment of fullfilled time. It shows how Tillich refers both to a specific notion of prophecy (developed in Max Weber's reflections on charisma) and to a concept of eschatological time (developed in Karl Barth's dialectical theology). In different texts from the 1920ies and the 1950ies, Tillich uses the idea of "kairos" for a critique of the "idols" of bourgeois culture that is both radical and urgent. However, read in their historic sequence, these texts also reveal the difficulty of upholding the urgency of such a critique over time – as a result, Tillich's notion of "kairos" becomes more and more reflexive and self critical as the possibility of prophetic critique is concerned. ; Peer Reviewed

The paper discusses Paul Tillich's changing conception of a "prophetic critique" of contemporary culture and society through the notion of a "kairos", the moment of fullfilled time. It shows how Tillich refers both to a specific notion of prophecy (developed in Max Weber's reflections on charisma) and to a concept of eschatological time (developed in Karl Barth's dialectical theology). In different texts from the 1920ies and the 1950ies, Tillich uses the idea of "kairos" for a critique of the "idols" of bourgeois culture that is both radical and urgent. However, read in their historic sequence, these texts also reveal the difficulty of upholding the urgency of such a critique over time - as a result, Tillich's notion of "kairos" becomes more and more reflexive and self critical as the possibility of prophetic critique is concerned.

Preliminary Material /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Editorial /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Zur Vorgeschichte des Eingedenkens /Stefano Marchesoni -- »Here goes B. wrong« /Stephanie Baumann -- »Wortloses Lied das Worte nicht ermessen« /Rolf J. Goebel -- In der Aura ihrer Aktualität /Sabine Schiller-Lerg -- Identity and Survival in Deutsche Menschen /Brian Britt -- Shock and Aura /Tamar Avishai -- The Painter through the Fourth Wall of China /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Pain and Memory in Benjamin's Mourning Play /Björn Quiring -- »Schmerz war ein Staudamm« /Ilit Ferber -- Überschreibungen /Heinz Brüggemann -- Mikrozeiten und Zeitreserven /Jens Birkmeyer -- »Eine gewichtige Pranke« /Vivian Liska -- A Cloud of Words /Hyowon Cho -- Benjamin's Early Reception in the United States /Peter Fenves -- Walter Benjamins »Erfahrung und Armut« /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Zweimal Erfahrungsarmut /Burkhardt Lindner -- Gedankensprung ins Nebulöse /Detlev Schöttker -- Cliffhanger der Unzeit /Helmut Lethen -- Abbildungsnachweise /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Zu den Autoren /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel.

Preliminary Material /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel -- Die Photographien »zu ihrem Rechte kommen lassen«. Zu Roland Barthes' Rezeption von Benjamins »Kleiner Geschichte der Photographie« /Kathrin Yacavone -- Double Take Palimpsestic Writing and Image-Character in Benjamin's Late Prose /Michael W. Jennings -- Die Bestimmung der Aufnahme. Licht und Graphie bei Walter Benjamin /Philipp Ekardt -- Das Buchstabieren Benjamins /Arno Dusini -- Zur Desorientierung im Manuskript der Vorrede zu Benjamins Trauerspielbuch /Malte Kleinwort -- Ad hominem. Karl Barths und Walter Benjamins performative Sprachprophetie /Dominik Finkelde -- Entweder/Und, Wiederkunft/Erlösung /Birte Löschenkohl -- Benjamin's Nihilism. Rhythm and Political Stasis /Nitzan Lebovic -- Fort-, Über-, Nachleben. Zu einer Denkfigur bei Benjamin /Daniel Weidner -- Für ein Ethos des destruktiven Charakters im Ausgang von Walter Benjamin /Maria Teresa Costa -- Walter Benjamin: The Angel of Victory and the Angel of History /José M. González García -- Zwischen emanzipatorischem Appell und melancholischem Verstummen. Walter Benjamins Jugendschriften /Johannes Steizinger -- »Geist ist das Vermögen, Diktatur auszuüben« Carl Schmitts Marginalien zu Walter Benjamin /Reinhard Mehring -- Zwei Poetiken der Diskontinuität Valérys Rhumbs und Benjamins Einbahnstraße /Werner Helmich -- Zeilenwelt. Strukturen der monumentalen Rede bei Walter Benjamin /Justus Fetscher -- Benjamins Einbahnstraße im Kontext des zeitgenössischen Aphorismus /Friedemann Spicker -- »Der ironische Engel«. Walter Benjamins Lektüre von Giacomo Leopardi im Spannungsverhältnis der Aphoristik nach 1800 und der zeitgenössischen Anthropologie /Heinrich Kaulen -- Publizität für das Dickicht der Texte. Zur Arbeit an der neuen Benjamin-Ausgabe /Burkhardt Lindner -- Kritische Überlegungen zur neuen Gesamtausgabe der Werke Walter Benjamins /Davide Giuriato -- Was ist bei Benjamin »Werk«, was »Nachlass«? Zu den archivarischen Voraussetzungen der Kritischen Gesamtausgabe /Detlev Schöttker -- Abbildungsnachweise /Daniel Weidner and Sigrid Weigel.

Today, law is no longer homogenous or unquestioned. Different overlapping legal systems constantly interfere with one another, both on an international level, in complex transnational contexts such as the European Union or human rights law, but also in the context of cultural diversity or conflicts between religious norms and civil institutions, between minorities and the power of the state. On the other hand, the neutrality of law is also under growing pressure, be it from different global transnational players, or from within nation states where calls are made to adapt law to the will of "the people." The heated European debate on the "refugee crisis" has made it manifest that law is more necessary than ever and yet fundamentally contested, perhaps even caught in contradictions and self-limitations. At the same time, the current perspective on legal problems allows us to address issues of diversity and the role of Europe in the globalized world more clearly. The articles of this book take these recent developments and debates as a starting point to discuss from the perspective of different disciplines the pressing question of how to live together in the new millennium and how to figure the long history of law before, besides, and after the dominant paradigm of state law