Metaphysics of the Profane

Metaphysics of the Profane
Author: Eric Jacobson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2003-08-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231501536

Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem are regarded as two of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Together they produced a dynamic body of ideas that has had a lasting impact on the study of religion, philosophy, and literary criticism. Drawing from Benjamin's and Scholem's ideas on messianism, language, and divine justice, this book traces the intellectual exchange through the early decades of the twentieth century—from Berlin, Bern, and Munich in the throws of war and revolution to Scholem's departure for Palestine in 1923. It begins with a close reading of Benjamin's early writings and a study of Scholem's theological politics, followed by an examination of Benjamin's proposals on language and the influence these ideas had on Scholem's scholarship on Jewish mysticism. From there the book turns to their ideas on divine justice—from Benjamin's critique of original sin and violence to Scholem's application of the categories to the prophets and Bolshevism. Metaphysics of the Profane is the first book to make this early period available to a wider audience, revealing the intricate structure of this early intellectual partnership on politics and theology.

Metaphysics of the Profane

Metaphysics of the Profane
Author: Eric Jacobson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2003-05-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231126573

Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.

On the Ontology of the Sacred (and the Profane)

On the Ontology of the Sacred (and the Profane)
Author: Raymond Aaron Younis
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2020-11-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149857369X

This book examines and clarifies the nature, meaning, significance and vitality of the sacred (and the profane), in relation to some of the diverse religions of the world and the rich and multifarious traditions of the sacred in many cultures and times, in the context of ontology (broadly, the philosophical study or investigation of being). It provides incisive critical analyses and evaluations of many important contributions to our understanding of the sacred, and the holy, especially in relation to the world's religions, religious experience, religious insight or knowledge, metaphysics, mythology and mysticism. A number of important theories and explanations are also critically analyzed and evaluated, including the numinous theory of the sacred and the holy (Otto), the psychodynamic theory (Freud), the sociological theory (Durkheim), empirical theories (Russell and Ayer), the ontological question (Heidegger) and the hierophantic theory (Eliade)—among others. The book concludes with a number of reflections on the ontology of the sacred (and the profane) in relation to philosophy and science, that will open up new pathways of thinking, reflection and investigation in the 21st century.

Migrants in the Profane

Migrants in the Profane
Author: Peter E. Gordon
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-11-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0300255594

A beautifully written exploration of religion’s role in a secular, modern politics, by an accomplished scholar of critical theory Migrants in the Profane takes its title from an intriguing remark by Theodor W. Adorno, in which he summarized the meaning of Walter Benjamin’s image of a celebrated mechanical chess-playing Turk and its hidden religious animus: “Nothing of theological content will persist without being transformed; every content will have to put itself to the test of migrating in the realm of the secular, the profane.” In this masterful book, Peter Gordon reflects on Adorno’s statement and asks an urgent question: Can religion offer any normative resources for modern political life, or does the appeal to religious concepts stand in conflict with the idea of modern politics as a domain free from religion’s influence? In answering this question, he explores the work of three of the Frankfurt School’s most esteemed thinkers: Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor W. Adorno. His illuminating analysis offers a highly original account of the intertwined histories of religion and secular modernity.

The Messianic Reduction

The Messianic Reduction
Author: Peter Fenves
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2011
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0804757887

The Messianic Reduction is the first study of Benjamin's early philosophy that takes into consideration the full range of his work, with particular emphasis on its complex relation to phenomenology, Kant and neo-Kantianism, and certain developments in mathematics.

The Sacred and the Profane

The Sacred and the Profane
Author: Mircea Eliade
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1959
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780156792011

Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.

Aztec Philosophy

Aztec Philosophy
Author: James Maffie
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 609
Release: 2014-03-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1607322234

In Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie shows the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. Bringing together the fields of comparative world philosophy and Mesoamerican studies, Maffie excavates the distinctly philosophical aspects of Aztec thought. Aztec Philosophy focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics—the Aztecs’ understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality—underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics,\ and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving—theirs was a world in motion. Drawing upon linguistic, ethnohistorical, archaeological, historical, and contemporary ethnographic evidence, Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology. Aztec Philosophy will be of great interest to Mesoamericanists, philosophers, religionists, folklorists, and Latin Americanists as well as students of indigenous philosophy, religion, and art of the Americas.

Reading Walter Benjamin

Reading Walter Benjamin
Author: Richard Lane
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2024-06-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1526183927

'Reading Walter Benjamin' explores the persistence of absolute in Benjamin's work by sketching-out the relationship between philosphy and theology apparent in his diverse writings, from the early youth-movement essays to the later books, essays and fragments. The book examines Benjamin from two main perspectives: a history-of-ideas approach situating Benjamin in relation to the new German-Jewish thinking at the turn of the twentieth-century, as well as the German youth movements, Surrealism and the 'Georgekreis'; and a conceptual approach examining more critical issues in relation to Benjamin and Kant, modern aesthetics and narrative order. Chapters cover: 'Kulturpessimismus' and the new thinking; metaphysics of youth: Wyneken and 'Rausch'; history: surreal Messianism; Goethe and the 'Georgekreis'; Kant's experience; casting the work of art; disrupting textual order; and exile and the time of crisis. The book uses new translations of Benjamin's essays, fragments and his 'Arcades Project', and makes substantial reference to previously untranslated material. Lane’s text allows the non-specialist entry into complex areas of critical theory, simultaneously offering original readings of Benjamin and twentieth-century arts and literature.

The Essential Ren‚ Gu‚non

The Essential Ren‚ Gu‚non
Author: René Guénon
Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2009
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1933316578

A prolific writer and author of over 24 books, Rene Guenon was the founder of the Perennialist/Traditionalist school of comparative religious thought. Known for his discourses on the intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of the modern world, symbolism, tradition, and the inner or spiritual dimension of religion, this book is a compilation of his most important writings. A key component of his thought was the assertion that universal truths manifest themselves in various forms in the world's religions and his writings on Hinduism, Taoism, and Sufism are particularly illuminating in this regard.