J.L. Talmon, Gershom Scholem and the price of Messianism
In: History of European ideas, Band 34, Heft 2, S. 169-188
ISSN: 0191-6599
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In: History of European ideas, Band 34, Heft 2, S. 169-188
ISSN: 0191-6599
In: Constellations: an international journal of critical and democratic theory, Band 14, Heft 1, S. 3-30
ISSN: 1467-8675
In: Routledge Jewish Studies Series
This book offers a new insight into the political, social, and religious conduct of religious-Zionism, whose consequences are evident in Israeli society today. Before the Six-Day War, religious-Zionism had limited its concern to the protection of specific religious interests, with its representatives having little share in the determination of Israel's national agenda. Fifty years after it, religious-Zionism has turned into one of Israeli society's dominant elements. The presence of this group in all aspects of Israel's life and its members' determination to set Israel's social, cultural, and international agenda is indisputable. Delving into this dramatic transformation, the book depicts the Six-Day War as a constitutive event that indelibly changed the political and religious consciousness of religious-Zionists. The perception of real history that had guided this movement from its dawn was replaced by a "sacred history" approach that became an actual program of political activity. As part of a process that has unfolded over the last thirty years, the body and sexuality have also become a central concern in the movement's practice, reflection, and discourse. The how and why of this shift in religious-Zionism – from passivity and a consciousness of marginality to the front lines of public life – is this book's central concern. The book will be of interest to readers and scholars concerned with changing dynamic societies and with the study of religion and particularly with the relationship between religion and politics.
The paper addresses the problem of historical role and impact of John Paul II's teachings on the dispute over Polish messianism which has been consistently present in the Polish literature and philosophy over the past two centuries. The article is an attempt to determine the pope's actual contribution to the development of the idea of Polish messianism, and evaluate the ultimate significance of this contribution within a broad perspective of the evolution of Polish political thought during the latter part of the twentieth and early decades of the twenty first centuries. The starting point in the discussion is the contemporary historical-philosophical research in this field, and the final conclusions are oriented towards the philosophical qualification of the most recent attempts to revive the messianist ideology on the basis of papal thought. ; The paper addresses the problem of historical role and impact of John Paul II's teachings on the dispute over Polish messianism which has been consistently present in the Polish literature and philosophy over the past two centuries. The article is an attempt to determine the pope's actual contribution to the development of the idea of Polish messianism, and evaluate the ultimate significance of this contribution within a broad perspective of the evolution of Polish political thought during the latter part of the twentieth and early decades of the twenty first centuries. The starting point in the discussion is the contemporary historical-philosophical research in this field, and the final conclusions are oriented towards the philosophical qualification of the most recent attempts to revive the messianist ideology on the basis of papal thought.
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In: Political theology, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 35-41
ISSN: 1743-1719
In: Strategies of critique: a graduate journal of social and political thought
ISSN: 1916-7210
In "Beyond Historical Tragedy" the author compares and discusses Hegel's prescient understanding of the meaning of tragedy and how it differs from Aristotelian or quasi-Aristotelian theories. At the same time, he embarks on a critique of George Steiner's Hegelian reading of Sophocles' Antigone, and of tragedy more generally. He develops the idea that the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School is closer to a Jewish or Christian perspective than to the tragic perspective - or to Hegel's modern version of the tragic perspective. The contrast is most clear in the way that the idea of fate is negated by Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Benjamin.
In: American political thought: a journal of ideas, institutions, and culture, Band 1, Heft 2, S. 236-262
ISSN: 2161-1599
In the history of the Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's reception in modern philosophical thought, a philosophical tradition of German-Jewish origin has a prominent role. Product of a singular "spiritual synthesis", as observed by Michael Löwy, the thought of Franz Kafka, George Lukács, Ernst Bloch, and Walter Benjamin has appeared in modern times as the sign of messianic claim for a libertarian, radical, and revolutionary socialism. Bearing in common the experience of not being reconciled with the world and history, this generation of intellectuals from Central Europe had "Jewish messianism" and "German romanticism" as privileged sources of their world-view. The religious concept of redemption and the political notion of libertarian utopia were combined in the trajectory of this German-Jewish intelligentsia that promoted an unprecedented reconfiguration of philosophical thought. It is well-known that the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy traverse the messianic and utopian imagery of this generation of revolutionary intellectuals and, as professor Michael Löwy assertively stated, "the utopian Bloch finds in Dostoevsky elements that legitimize The Principle of Hope: Aliocha Karamazov would be a precursor to the 'religious kingdom of justice'…". Such an observation is at the heart of a critical fortune accumulated in the works of Löwy and opens paths of analysis that have yet to be made in relation to the reception of Russian literature in modern Jewish philosophy. Michael Löwy is director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS-Paris) and is one of the most significant and creative intellectuals of today. The Marxist philosopher's work offers a rare intertwining of socialism and surrealism, and establishes a meticulous approximation between philosophy and literature. The acuity with which Löwy interprets the German-Jewish messianism and romanticism, the tragic negativity and the ethical and human claims brought to light by such a tradition presents us with a revolutionary and libertarian state of being that only has equivalents in the utopian-messianic glimpses we find in the great Russian novels. The concept of "Romantic anti-capitalism", which made it possible to read the romantic tradition in a revolutionary way, can be interpreted as the fil rouge that connects the world of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to the messianic utopianism of modern Judaism. The reception of Russian literature in the philosophical thought of the 20th century was complex and polyphonic, and the example of Dostoevsky, a thinker who, for Löwy, "is clearly situated on the grounds of the romantic world-view", becomes significantly emblematic. Although a conservative romanticism has found in the author of The Brothers Karamazov elements that could legitimize the nationalist desire for roots arising from a conservative tradition (Moeller van den Bruck, Goebbels, Heidegger), the utopian-revolutionary interpretation of the Russian writer made by "Jews of German culture" is among the most creative pages of modern philosophy. The set of analyses offered by Michael Löwy on the Jewish and neo-romantic tradition represented by authors such as Kafka, Lukács, Bloch, and Benjamin is an essential material for those who seek to better understand the reception and influence of Russian literature, especially Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, in the philosophical constellation of Judaism in the first half of the 20th century. The elective approximation carried out by the Franco-Brazilian philosopher between the "spiritual culture" expressed in the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and the historical condition of Jewish intellectuals in Central Europe appears here as an essential element. An anecdote told by Emmanuel Levinas during an interview with François Poirié reveals that, during the visit of an Israeli from Eastern Europe to his home, the visitor noticed the complete works of Pushkin on the bookshelves and stated: "One immediately sees that we are in a Jewish house". In the interview we present here and, above all, in the greatness of Michael Löwy's works, we can find fundamental clues to interpret the spiritual proximity between a Central European Jewish tradition and the great Russian literature. This "attractio electiva", coming from a neo-romantic Jewish intelligentsia in relation to the theological and utopian residues that are embodied in the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy (residues that may be essentially Jewish), can be interpreted as the most explosive element of modern philosophical messianism. ; In the history of the Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's reception in modern philosophical thought, a philosophical tradition of German-Jewish origin has a prominent role. Product of a singular "spiritual synthesis", as observed by Michael Löwy, the thought of Franz Kafka, George Lukács, Ernst Bloch, and Walter Benjamin has appeared in modern times as the sign of messianic claim for a libertarian, radical, and revolutionary socialism. Bearing in common the experience of not being reconciled with the world and history, this generation of intellectuals from Central Europe had "Jewish messianism" and "German romanticism" as privileged sources of their world-view. The religious concept of redemption and the political notion of libertarian utopia were combined in the trajectory of this German-Jewish intelligentsia that promoted an unprecedented reconfiguration of philosophical thought. It is well-known that the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy traverse the messianic and utopian imagery of this generation of revolutionary intellectuals and, as professor Michael Löwy assertively stated, "the utopian Bloch finds in Dostoevsky elements that legitimize The Principle of Hope: Aliocha Karamazov would be a precursor to the 'religious kingdom of justice'…". Such an observation is at the heart of a critical fortune accumulated in the works of Löwy and opens paths of analysis that have yet to be made in relation to the reception of Russian literature in modern Jewish philosophy. Michael Löwy is director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS-Paris) and is one of the most significant and creative intellectuals of today. The Marxist philosopher's work offers a rare intertwining of socialism and surrealism, and establishes a meticulous approximation between philosophy and literature. The acuity with which Löwy interprets the German-Jewish messianism and romanticism, the tragic negativity and the ethical and human claims brought to light by such a tradition presents us with a revolutionary and libertarian state of being that only has equivalents in the utopian-messianic glimpses we find in the great Russian novels. The concept of "Romantic anti-capitalism", which made it possible to read the romantic tradition in a revolutionary way, can be interpreted as the fil rouge that connects the world of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to the messianic utopianism of modern Judaism. The reception of Russian literature in the philosophical thought of the 20th century was complex and polyphonic, and the example of Dostoevsky, a thinker who, for Löwy, "is clearly situated on the grounds of the romantic world-view", becomes significantly emblematic. Although a conservative romanticism has found in the author of The Brothers Karamazov elements that could legitimize the nationalist desire for roots arising from a conservative tradition (Moeller van den Bruck, Goebbels, Heidegger), the utopian-revolutionary interpretation of the Russian writer made by "Jews of German culture" is among the most creative pages of modern philosophy. The set of analyses offered by Michael Löwy on the Jewish and neo-romantic tradition represented by authors such as Kafka, Lukács, Bloch, and Benjamin is an essential material for those who seek to better understand the reception and influence of Russian literature, especially Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, in the philosophical constellation of Judaism in the first half of the 20th century. The elective approximation carried out by the Franco-Brazilian philosopher between the "spiritual culture" expressed in the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and the historical condition of Jewish intellectuals in Central Europe appears here as an essential element. An anecdote told by Emmanuel Levinas during an interview with François Poirié reveals that, during the visit of an Israeli from Eastern Europe to his home, the visitor noticed the complete works of Pushkin on the bookshelves and stated: "One immediately sees that we are in a Jewish house". In the interview we present here and, above all, in the greatness of Michael Löwy's works, we can find fundamental clues to interpret the spiritual proximity between a Central European Jewish tradition and the great Russian literature. This "attractio electiva", coming from a neo-romantic Jewish intelligentsia in relation to the theological and utopian residues that are embodied in the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy (residues that may be essentially Jewish), can be interpreted as the most explosive element of modern philosophical messianism.
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In: Postcolonial studies 6
In: Political theology, Band 11, Heft 1, S. 35-41
ISSN: 1462-317X
In this article Jacob Taubes's idea of eschatology is examined. Taubes's own understanding of eschatology has profound implications on the very expression of political theology & political practice. If politics -- as a practice -- assumes that time has a terminal point, than it will invariably change this practice & encumber & even neutralize political action of a common-body that gives voice to the oppressed. This article agrees with Taubes in that eschatology must announce an end to itself, which is at once a birth of a postmodern possibility of the principle of immanence in which a common-body announces its infinite possibility. The end of eschatology is the end of transcendence & the beginning of a struggle for liberating the infinite possibility of a common-body of labor. Adapted from the source document.
El presente trabajo intenta realizar una lectura del pensamiento de emmanuel levinas a través de su ética y, en particular, de su concepción de lo mesiánico. Para ello, indagaremos dos caminos diferentes en torno a la figura del rostro: por un lado, su herencia fenomenológica, por otro lado, sus raíces judaicas. Hacia el final del trabajo sostendremos que el mesianismo levinasiano posee el carácter de lo impolítico, esto es, de un pensamiento que intenta trascender los umbrales de lo político hacia consideraciones críticas. ; This paper tries to perform a reading of emmanuel levinas through its ethics and, in particular, his conception of the Messianic. To do so, delving two different ways on the 'face' notion: on the one hand, its phenomenological heritage, on the other hand, their Jewish roots. Towards the end of the work we support that levinasian Messianism has the character of impolitic, i.e., of a thought that attempts to transcend the threshold of political towards a critical considerations. ; Fil: Balcarce, Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
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In: Political theory: an international journal of political philosophy, Band 32, Heft 6, S. 881-884
ISSN: 0090-5917
Addresses the messianism of commodity language in Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International (1993), questioning whether language of the political economy is a second language or the same language as that which it critiques. Karl Marx & Derrida allude to the philosophical metaphor of veiling, mystification, & fetish; however, Derrida's conclusions drawn from Marx's fetishism of commodities present the structure of the messianic as a dimension of both the commodity & its language. Derrida's messianic emerges from the spectrality of the structure of phenomenality &, therefore, must reveal itself in the commodity, suggesting that any analysis of capital must also analyze its messianic power. Marx's commodity language is explored, & the Marxian promise that arises from conflict is compared to Derrida's view of the promise as infinite abstraction & a longing for all that is absent. It is maintained that it is essential to oppose the death of the promise in theoretical certainty & practical complacency & to resist destruction of the present that opens itself to the entrance of history. J. Lindroth