Atheistische Theologie - Einzelansicht

”Atheistic Theology” is the title of an article written in 1914 by the Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig in response to Martin Buber’s early lectures on Judaism regarding revelation and the Jewish way of life. Buber saw the myth as a means to reach the core of the truth of Judaism. ”Not Joseph Karo but Isaac Luria... and not the Gaon of Vilna but the Baal Shem... consolidated and demarcated Judaism... renewing the people’s personality from the roots of its myth.”. Rabbinism, asserts Buber, ”has emasculated the Jewish ideal.” For Rosenzweig, Jewish tradition, in any case, involves rational interpretation. However, even a mystical interpretation of the unity between ‘accepting the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘accepting the yoke of the law’, cannot take the place of Mitzvah’s actual deed. Rosenzweig believed that a philosophical and historical view of revelation carried the risk of turning Judaism into an atheistic culture. This debate will serve us in this seminar as a starting point to examine and discuss the relationship between theistic and atheistic elements in Jewish thought from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.

Referat, one in-class presentation (30-45 min) and submission of its manuscript (printed)