Idolatry and Representation : : The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered / / Leora Batnitzky.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter PUP eBook-Package 2000-2015
• VerfasserIn: Batnitzky, Leora,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2009]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Although Franz Rosenzweig is arguably the most important Jewish philosopher of the twentieth century, his thought remains little understood. Here, Leora Batnitzky argues that Rosenzweig's redirection of German-Jewish ethical monotheism anticipates and challenges contemporary trends in religious studies, ethics, philosophy, anthropology, theology, and biblical studies. This text, which captures the hermeneutical movement of Rosenzweig's corpus, is the first to consider the full import of the cultural criticism articulated in his writings on the modern meanings of art, language, ethics, and national identity. In the process, the book solves significant conundrums about Rosenzweig's relation to German idealism, to other major Jewish thinkers, to Jewish political life, and to Christianity, and brings Rosenzweig into conversation with key contemporary thinkers. Drawing on Rosenzweig's view that Judaism's ban on idolatry is the crucial intellectual and spiritual resource available to respond to the social implications of human finitude, Batnitzky interrogates idolatry as a modern possibility. Her analysis speaks not only to the question of Judaism's relationship to modernity (and vice versa), but also to the generic question of the present's relationship to the past--a subject of great importance to anyone contemplating the modern statuses of religious tradition, reason, science, and historical inquiry. By way of Rosenzweig, Batnitzky argues that contemporary philosophers and ethicists must relearn their approaches to religious traditions and texts to address today's central ethical problems.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Reconsidering Rosenzweig and Modern Conceptions of Idolatry -- PA RT I : ETHICS AND MONOTHEISM -- One. The Eradication of Alien Worship: Rosenzweig as Ethical Monotheist -- Two. Miracles and Martyrs, Ethics and Hermeneutics: Idolatry from Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig -- Three. The Philosophical Import of Carnal Israel: Hermeneutics and the Structure of Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption -- PART II : ART AND LANGUAGE -- Four Risky Images: Rosenzweig's Aesthetic Theory and Jewish Uncanniness -- Five The Problem of Translation: Risking the Present for the Sake of the Past -- PART III: RELIGIONAND POLITICS -- Six. Risking Religion: Christian Idolatry -- Seven. Risking Politics: Jewish Idolatry -- Eight. After Israel: Rosenzweig's Philosophy of Risk Reconsidered -- Conclusion. The Future of Monotheism -- Notes -- Index