Franz Rosenzweig

The Star of Redemption is widely recognized as a key document of modern existential thought and a significant contribution to Jewish theology in the twentieth century. An affirmation of what Rosenzweig called “the new thinking,” the work ensconces common sense in the place of abstract, conceptual philosophizing and posits the validity of the concrete, individual human being over that of “humanity” in general. Fusing philosophy and theology, it assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world, and finds in both biblical religions approaches toward a comprehension of reality.

Franz Rosenzweig was a prominent figure in the development of Jewish existentialism and a major influence on the work Emil Fackenheim amongst others. This work offers an array of significant texts and presents Rosenzweig's life in an informative way.

Seeking how to be an observant Jew in the modern world, Rosenzweig refused to reduce the traditions of Jewish law to mere rituals, customs, and folkways. His aim for himself and for others was to find Judaism by living it, and to live it by knowing it more deeply."--BOOK JACKET.

The volume collects a series of groundbreaking new studies which delve into the work of Franz Rosenzweig and assess its enduring yet still unacknowledged value for Epistemology, Aesthetics, Moral and Political Philosophy, going far beyond Theology and Philosophy of Religion.

Here, for the first time, faithfully translated in their entirety, are the principal texts for which Franz Rosenzweig initiated the project that would become The Star of Redemption. Included in the volume are Rosenzweig's essay, "The New Thinking;" four important reviews of The Star of Redemption, and his 1917 letter to Rudolf Ehrenberg, the "germcell" of The Star. Barbara E. Galli 's own essay touches on the basic concepts of Rosenzweig's work, while pointing to and going beyond his scholarship. Alan Udoff's provocative closing essay situates Rosenzweig's thought in the context of modem and postmodern philosophical concerns and suggests a new direction in assessing the philosopher's theological accomplishment. This volume is a perfect guide for students of the great philosopher and for a broader general audience seeking an introduction to Rosenzwieg's ideas.

Rosenzweig, one of the century's great Jewish thinkers, wrote his book in 1921 as an accessible précis of his famous Star of Redemption. An elegant introduction to Rosenzweig's "new thinking," this book puts forth an important critique of the 19th-century German Idealist philosophical tradition and expresses a powerful vision of Jewish religion.

Translated here for the first time by Barbara E. Galli, these five lectures and writings of Franz Rosenzweig will be welcomed by both the novice and the veteran student of the great philosopher. Based on his lectures at the Jildisches Freies Lehrhaus, the famous Jewish Institute of Adult Education, the essays include notes for a group of lectures of 1920, "Faith and Knowledge," followed by a three-part lecture series of 1922: "The Science of God," "The Science of Man," and the "Science of World." The pieces form a powerful whole. Not only does this book further our understanding of Rosenzweig's daunting work, The Star of Redemption—a seemingly inexhaustible text—but of Rosenzweig's primary principles, that of the irreducibility of God, human being, and world, and of the needfulness of relation and of time for the nourishment of truth and cognition. He expounds on his premise that faith and knowledge are interdependent, and that knowledge is derivative of faith.

Pollock argues that Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption is devoted to the philosophical task of grasping 'the All' - the whole of what is - as a system.