Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 

Saved Queries

Sign in to use this feature.

Search Filter Reset All

Years

Between: -

Subjects

remove_circle_outline
Add Subjects Reset
Select Subjects

Journals

remove_circle_outline
Add Journals Reset
Select Journals

Article Types

remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
Add Article Types Reset
Select Article Types

Countries / Regions

remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
remove_circle_outline
Add Countries / Regions Reset
Select Countries / Regions
Update Search
share announcement

Search Results (6)

Search Parameters:
Keywords = Gershom Scholem

Order results
Result details
Results per page
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
27 pages, 359 KiB  
Article
Judaism, Experience, and the Secularizing of Life: Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s Montage of Quotation
by Benjamin E. Sax
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1033; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111033 - 28 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2401
Abstract
Most scholarship on the life and thought of Walter Benjamin does not seriously engage the phenomenon of religion or the philosophy of religion in his thought. While some scholarship considers Benjamin a German-Jewish thinker, placed in the company of luminaries such as Martin [...] Read more.
Most scholarship on the life and thought of Walter Benjamin does not seriously engage the phenomenon of religion or the philosophy of religion in his thought. While some scholarship considers Benjamin a German-Jewish thinker, placed in the company of luminaries such as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem, most readers assume that Benjamin’s secular identity motivated most of his inquiries and critical thinking. However, focusing on a secular sensibility obscures important elements of religious traditions in Benjamin’s writings. In fact, Benjamin suggested that widely contemporary institutions like capitalism, art, and even at times science contained poignant traces of religion and religious thought. In this article, I examine these traces by revisiting his montage of quotation, which, I argue, is where we see the most salient aspects of the use of Judaism in Benjamin’s thought. His desire to secularize life was inexorably related to his interpretations of experience and of Judaism. I will argue that not only did Benjamin, in fact, use Jewish theological language and imagery through his montage of quotation, but also, he used this method to secularize contemporary theological-political-aesthetic paradigms. I will also argue that this method—primarily understood through his idiosyncratic use of Jewish imagery—is critical to the writing of history. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Modern Jewish Thought: Volume II)
11 pages, 256 KiB  
Article
Jonas, Scholem, and the Taubeses in Jerusalem: From Metaphysical Antisemitism to a Jewish Gnostic Conspiracy
by Jonathan Cahana-Blum
Religions 2022, 13(10), 949; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100949 - 10 Oct 2022
Viewed by 2528
Abstract
This article addresses how Hans Jonas’s reconstruction of gnosticism as a historical movement in late antiquity gave rise to two parallel contemporary interpretations: Gershom Scholem’s “metaphysical antisemitism” and Susan and Jacob Taubes’s attempt at a revival of a Jewish—gnostic cultic revolt. While both [...] Read more.
This article addresses how Hans Jonas’s reconstruction of gnosticism as a historical movement in late antiquity gave rise to two parallel contemporary interpretations: Gershom Scholem’s “metaphysical antisemitism” and Susan and Jacob Taubes’s attempt at a revival of a Jewish—gnostic cultic revolt. While both reached very similar conclusions regarding the gnostic potential for modern Judaism, they could not be more different in the implications they drew from it. This, in turn, also explains the animosity that developed between all the people involved. Full article
10 pages, 272 KiB  
Article
Back to the Future: Leo Strauss, Gershom Scholem and the Restorative Messianic Utopia
by Piotr Sawczyński
Religions 2022, 13(7), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070618 - 4 Jul 2022
Viewed by 2634
Abstract
This article offers a critical analysis of the dispute between two prominent twentieth-century Jewish thinkers—Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem—on the temporal nature of Jewish messianism, particularly the messianism of the Lurianic kabbalah. Whereas Strauss uses Scholem’s authority to criticize the idea of progress [...] Read more.
This article offers a critical analysis of the dispute between two prominent twentieth-century Jewish thinkers—Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem—on the temporal nature of Jewish messianism, particularly the messianism of the Lurianic kabbalah. Whereas Strauss uses Scholem’s authority to criticize the idea of progress and claims that the messianic idea of Lurianism as interpreted by Scholem is purely restorative, Scholem actually argues for its dialectical nature: neither progressive nor regressive but seeking to synthesize the past and future in the utopian figure of “restoring” the original potentiality. The purpose of my analysis is twofold: to expose Strauss’s misreading of Scholem’s theory which has so far escaped the critical attention of scholars, and to contribute to the debate on religion and change by deconstructing the apparent opposition of progress and return (or utopia and restoration) in Jewish messianic tradition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Change)
19 pages, 325 KiB  
Article
The Dialectics of Feeling: Hugo Bergman’s and Gershom Scholem’s Political Theologies of Zionism
by Orr Scharf
Religions 2022, 13(7), 601; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070601 - 28 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2280
Abstract
The current article has several aims. First, it seeks to underscore the importance of Hugo Bergman’s and Gershom Scholem’s late critiques of Zionism, and to argue that they should be understood as politico-theological commentaries on the Israeli political reality in which they lived. [...] Read more.
The current article has several aims. First, it seeks to underscore the importance of Hugo Bergman’s and Gershom Scholem’s late critiques of Zionism, and to argue that they should be understood as politico-theological commentaries on the Israeli political reality in which they lived. Second, it argues for the relevance of approaching these critiques through the theoretical prism of political theology. Third, it aims to chart the overlaps and differences between the Bergmanesque and Scholemian theological interpretations of Zionism by charting their common premises and differences. I argue that the former derive from their shared view of Zionism as a religious project, and the latter derive from their arrival at polar conclusions: Bergman seeking a positive potential; Scholem identifying a destructive potential. Hence, their political theologies of Zionism are understood as a “dialectic of feeling”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Theological Ideologies)
16 pages, 318 KiB  
Article
Politics and Theology in the Historical Works of Yitzhak Baer
by Yiftach Ofek
Religions 2022, 13(6), 537; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060537 - 11 Jun 2022
Viewed by 2859
Abstract
Of the individuals most commonly associated with the so-called “Jerusalem School” of historiography—the first- and second-generation of scholars of Jewish history that coalesced around the Hebrew University in the first years of its existence—Yitzhak (Fritz) Baer (1888–1980) was probably the least overtly political. [...] Read more.
Of the individuals most commonly associated with the so-called “Jerusalem School” of historiography—the first- and second-generation of scholars of Jewish history that coalesced around the Hebrew University in the first years of its existence—Yitzhak (Fritz) Baer (1888–1980) was probably the least overtly political. Yet, a careful reading of his writings reveals a mind that was heavily engaged with the social and political affairs of the day. Like most members of the Jerusalem School, Baer saw his scholarship as a contribution to the Zionist project—an attempt to influence the character of the renascent Jewish society. Although he did not proclaim or publicize his views as loudly as others, he nonetheless weaved his political views into the fabric of his historical research. By reading his historical works against their immediate political context, we can therefore begin to piece together what amounts to an original and comprehensive worldview. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jewish Theological Ideologies)
5 pages, 181 KiB  
Editorial
Introduction: Religion, Experience, and Narrative
by Ulrike Popp-Baier
Religions 2021, 12(8), 639; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080639 - 13 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2207
Abstract
At the end of his famous book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem points to the important role stories have played in Hasidism, the latest phase in Jewish Mysticism, and he closes his lectures with the following story: When the Baal [...] Read more.
At the end of his famous book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem points to the important role stories have played in Hasidism, the latest phase in Jewish Mysticism, and he closes his lectures with the following story: When the Baal Shem had a difficult task before him, he would go to a certain place in the woods, light a fire and meditate in prayer—and what he had set out to perform was done [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Experience, and Narrative)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying article 1-50 on page 1 of 1.
Back to TopTop