Salvation through Spinoza : a study of Jewish culture in Weimar Germany / / by David J. Wertheim.

• Superior document: Jewish and Christian perspectives series, v. 21
• Author: Wertheim, David J.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Jewish and Christian perspectives series ; v. 21.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (244 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Despite his reputation as a heretic, Baruch Spinoza was one of the major heroes of the Jewish cultural Renaissance in Weimar Germany. This study traces Weimar Jewry's infatuation with Spinoza as it was manifested in scholarship, the popular press, and novels. It tells of how Jews, who found themselves oscillating between the social pressures to both assimilate and remain authentic, sought refuge in a thinker who epitomized both the rationality and liberalism of the Weimar Republic’s enlightened defenders as well as the mysticism of its neo-romanticist challengers. In recapturing this forgotten chapter in the history of Spinozism this book sheds an original light on Weimar Germany’s reknown Jewish culture.

Table of Contents

Celebrating Spinoza -- Jews and Germans -- Integration and authenticity -- Historicism and messianism -- Rejecting Spinoza's celebration -- 'The signature of the era' literature.