Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology

Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology
Author: David Ohana
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2018-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 042978161X

Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsche’s powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most important Jewish thinkers who utilized Nietzsche’s writings in crafting the intellectual foundations of Jewish modern political theology. These figures’ political convictions ranged from orthodox conservatism to pacifist anarchism, and their attitude towards Nietzsche’s ideas varied from enthusiastic embrace to ambivalence and outright rejection. By bringing these diverse figures together, the book makes a convincing argument about Nietzsche’s importance for key figures of early Zionism and modern Jewish political thought. The present study offers a new interpretation of a particular theological position which is called "heretical religiosity." Only with modernity and, paradoxically, with rapid secularization, did one find "heretical religiosity" at full strength. Nietzsche enabled intellectual Jews to transform the foundation of their political existence. It provides a new perspective on the adaptation of Nietzsche’s philosophy in the age of Jewish national politics, and at the same time is a case study in the intellectual history of the modern Jewry. This new reading on Nietzsche’s work is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in philosophy, Jewish history and political theology.

Nietzsche's Jewish Problem

Nietzsche's Jewish Problem
Author: Robert C. Holub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2015-10-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0691167559

The first comprehensive account of Nietzsche's views of Jews and Judaism For more than a century, Nietzsche's views about Jews and Judaism have been subject to countless polemics. The Nazis infamously fashioned the philosopher as their anti-Semitic precursor, while in the past thirty years the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. The increasingly popular view today is that Nietzsche was not only completely free of racist tendencies but also was a principled adversary of anti-Jewish thought. Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem offers a definitive reappraisal of the controversy, taking the full historical, intellectual, and biographical context into account. As Robert Holub shows, a careful consideration of all the evidence from Nietzsche’s published and unpublished writings and letters reveals that he harbored anti-Jewish prejudices throughout his life. Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem demonstrates how this is so despite the apparent paradox of the philosopher’s well-documented opposition to the crude political anti-Semitism of the Germany of his day. As Holub explains, Nietzsche’s "anti-anti-Semitism" was motivated more by distaste for vulgar nationalism than by any objection to anti-Jewish prejudice. A richly detailed account of a controversy that goes to the heart of Nietzsche’s reputation and reception, Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem will fascinate anyone interested in philosophy, intellectual history, or the history of anti-Semitism.

Judaism, Liberalism, & Political Theology

Judaism, Liberalism, & Political Theology
Author: Jerome E. Copulsky
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2013-12-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 025301039X

These essays propose “a new and richly detailed engagement between Judaism and the political” (Jewish Book World). Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology provides the first broad encounter between modern Jewish thought and recent developments in political theology, arguing in opposition to impetuous associations of Judaism and liberalism and charges that Judaism cannot engender a universal political order. The vexed status of liberalism in Jewish thought and Judaism in political theology is interrogated with recourse to thinking from across the Continental tradition. “This collection of essays, which examines political theology from the distinct perspective of Jewish philosophy, could not be timelier or more useful for scholars and students navigating what is often viewed as very dense and difficult material.”—Claire Elise Katz, Texas A&M University

The Triumph of Hate

The Triumph of Hate
Author: Christopher Vasillopulos
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0761856714

"Explains the religious, philosophical, sociopolitical, and historical roots of the rise of Hitler and his movement"--P. [4] of cover.

Studies in Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition

Studies in Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition
Author: James C. O'Flaherty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1985
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

This collection of essays is a sequel to the editors' 1976 volume Studies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition. Philosophers, theologians, and literary historians discuss important aspects of Nietzsche's attack on Judaism and Christianity. The book contains studies of his view of biblical figures, Luther and Pascal as well as comparisons of his thought with that of Spinoza, Lessing, Heine, and Kierkegaard. Nietzsche's critique of the Old Testament, the Jewish religion of the diaspora, and historical Christianity are also investigated. Of the eighteen articles included here, thirteen were prepared expressly for this volume--five were translated from German, one from French, and one from Hebrew. Contributors to this volume are: Eugen Biser, Harry Neumann, Israel Eldad, Charles Lewis, Jorg Salaquarda, Joan Stambaugh, Max L. Baeumer, Brendan Donellan, Diana Behler, Sander L. Gilman, Gerd-Gunther Grau, Josef Simon, James C. O'Flaherty, Bernd Magnus, Georges Goedert, Hans Lung, and Karl Barth.

Nietzsche, Soloveitchik and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy

Nietzsche, Soloveitchik and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy
Author: Daniel Rynhold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2018-06-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107109035

Presents Soloveitchik's philosophy as a conceptual response to Nietzsche's critique of religion that brings Nietzsche's life-affirming sensibility to halakhic Judaism.

Nietzsche, God, and the Jews

Nietzsche, God, and the Jews
Author: Weaver Santaniello
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438418647

Combining biography and a careful analysis of Nietzsche's writings from 1844-1900, this book explores Nietzsche's critique of Christianity, Judaism, and antisemitism. The first part of the book is concerned with psychological aspects and biographical elements. Part Two focuses on the ethical and political aspects of Nietzsche's views as presented in his mature writings: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Toward the Genealogy of Morals, and the Antichrist.

Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss
Author: Kenneth L. Deutsch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1994
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780847678389

In this book, 19 prominent representatives of each side in the basic division among Strauss's followers explore his contribution to political philosophy and Jewish thought. The volume presents the most extensive analysis yet published of Strauss's religious heritage and how it related to his work, and includes Strauss's previously unpublished 'Why We Remain Jews, ' an extraordinary essay concerned with the challenge posed to Judaism by modern secular thought. The extensive introduction interrelates the major themes of Strauss's thought

Nietzsche and the Political

Nietzsche and the Political
Author: Daniel W. Conway
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1997
Genre: Philosophy, German
ISBN: 9780415100694

Arguing that Nietzsche's political thinking is closer related to the conservative republicanism of his predecessors than to the progressive liberalism of his contemporaries, here Conway lays bare Nietzsche's political legacy.

Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity

Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity
Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438421443

This is the first book to bring together the major essays and lectures of Leo Strauss in the field of modern Jewish thought. It contains some of his most famous published writings, as well as significant writings which were previously unpublished. Spanning almost 30 years of continuously deepening reflection, the book presents the full range of Strauss's contributions as a modern Jewish thinker. These essays and lectures also offer Strauss's mature considerations of some of the great figures in modern Jewish thought, such as Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Theodor Herzl, and Sigmund Freud. They also encompass his incisive analyses and original explorations of modern Judaism (which he viewed as caught in the grip of the "theological-political crisis"): from German Jewry, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust to Zionism and the State of Israel; from the question of assimilation to the meaning and value of Jewish history. In addition Strauss's two sustained interpretations of the Hebrew Bible are also reprinted. These essays and lectures cumulatively point toward the "postcritical" reconstruction of Judaism which Strauss envisioned, suggesting it rebuild along Maimonidean lines. Thus, the book lends credence to the view that Strauss was able to uncover and probe the crisis at the heart of modern Jewish thought and history, perhaps with greater profundity than any other contemporary Jewish thinker.