God Interrupted: Heresy and the European Imagination between the World Wars PDF
Preview God Interrupted: Heresy and the European Imagination between the World Wars
God Interrupted This page intentionally left blank God Interrupted heresy and the european imagination between the world wars Benjamin Lazier princeton university press princeton and oxford Copyright#2008byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet,Woodstock, OxfordshireOX201TW AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lazier,Benjamin,1971– Godinterrupted:heresyandtheEuropeanimaginationbetweenthe worldwars/BenjaminLazier. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex. ISBN978-0-691-13670-7(hardcover:alk.paper) 1. God (Judaism)—Historyofdoctrines—20thcentury. 2. Philosophy, Jewish—History—20thcentury. 3. Jonas,Hans,1903–1993. 4. Scholem, GershomGerhard,1897–1982. 5. Strauss,Leo. 6. Heresy—History—20th century. 7. Pantheism—History—20thcentury. 8. Gnosticism—History—20th century. 9. Europe—Intellectuallife—20thcentury. I. Title. BM610.L39352008 296.3'110904–dc22 2008005405 BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable ThepublicationofthisbookwasmadepossibleinpartbyagenerousgrantfromtheKoret Foundation. ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon Printedonacid-freepaper.? press.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my parents This page intentionally left blank ‘‘And what isthis God?’’I asked theearthandit answered: ‘‘Iamnot He,’’andallthe things that are ontheearth confessed thesame answer. Iaskedthe seaand the deeps and the creepingthingswith living souls,andthey replied, ‘‘We arenot your God.Look aboveus.’’Iaskedthe heaven, thesun, themoon,thestars,and‘‘No,’’theysaid,‘‘wearenottheGodfor whom you arelooking.’’And Isaid toall those things which standaboutthegatesofmysenses:‘‘Tellmesomethingaboutmy God,youwhoarenotHe.TellmesomethingaboutHim.’’And they cried out ina loud voice: ‘‘He made us.’’ —Augustine, Confessions Whatisthe world? The world isour whole existence, as it has been,and is, conditionedby sin. There hascome into being a cosmos which, becausewe nolonger know God, isnot Creation. ... Insofarasthisworldisourworld,itistheworld intowhichsinhasentered.Inthisworld,onthisearth,andunder this heaven, there isnoredemption, nodirect life. —KarlBarth, The Epistle to theRomans Our world istruly the morphologicalworlditself, an unending revelation of matter. —Hans Jonas This page intentionally left blank Contents PrefaceandAcknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Part One: Overcoming Gnosticism Chapter One The Gnostic Return 27 Chapter Two Romans inWeimar 37 Chapter Three Overcoming Gnosticism 49 Chapter Four After Auschwitz,Earth 60 Part Two: The Pantheism Controversy Chapter Five Pantheism Revisited 73 Chapter Six The Pantheism Controversy 93 Chapter Seven FromGod toNature 111 Chapter Eight Natural Right and Judaism 127 Part Three: Redemption through Sin Chapter Nine Redemption through Sin 139 Chapter Ten JewishGnosticism 146 Chapter Eleven Raising Pantheism 161
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