Jewish Thought, Utopia, and Revolution PDF
Preview Jewish Thought, Utopia, and Revolution
JEWISH THOUGHT, UTOPIA, AND REVOLUTION VIBS Volume 274 Robert Ginsberg Founding Editor Leonidas Donskis Executive Editor Associate Editors G. John M. Abbarno Richard T. Hull George Allan Michael Krausz Gerhold K. Becker Olli Loukola Raymond Angelo Belliotti Mark Letteri Kenneth A. Bryson Vincent L. Luizzi C. Stephen Byrum Hugh P. McDonald Robert A. Delfino Adrianne McEvoy Rem B. Edwards J.D. Mininger Malcolm D. Evans Danielle Poe Roland Faber Peter A. Redpath Andrew Fitz-Gibbon Arleen L. F. Salles Francesc Forn i Argimon John R. Shook Daniel B. Gallagher Eddy Souffrant William C. Gay Tuija Takala Dane R. Gordon Emil Višňovský J. Everet Green Anne Waters Heta Aleksandra Gylling James R. Watson Matti Häyry John R. Welch Brian G. Henning Thomas Woods Steven V. Hicks a volume in Philosophy and Religion PAR Kenneth A. Bryson, Editor JEWISH THOUGHT, UTOPIA, AND REVOLUTION Edited by Elena Namli Jayne Svenungsson Alana M. Vincent Amsterdam - New York, NY 2014 Cover Illustration: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920 (India ink, color chalks and brown wash on paper, 32.2 x 24.2 cm) Collection The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Photo ©The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Elie Posner Cover design: Studio Pollmann The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-3833-2 E-Book ISBN: 978-94-012-1078-2 © Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2014 Printed in the Netherlands Philosophy and Religion (PAR) Kenneth A. Bryson Editor Other Titles in PAR David C. Bellusci. Amor Dei in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. 2013. VIBS 265 Jim Kanaris, Editor. Polyphonic Thinking and the Divine. 2013. VIBS 257 William Sweet and Hendrik Hart. Responses to the Enlightenment: An Exchange on Foundations, Faith, and Community. 2012. VIBS 241 Avi Sagi. Tradition vs Traditionalism: Contemporary Perspectives in Jewish Thought. Translated from Hebrew by Batya Stein. 2008. VIBS 197 Brendan Sweetman. The Vision of Gabriel Marcel: Epistemology, Human Person, the Transcendent. 2008. VIBS 193 Constantin V. Ponomareff and Kenneth A. Bryson. The Curve of the Sacred. 2006. VIBS 178 Deane-Peter Baker and Patrick Maxwell. Editors. Explorations in Contemporary Continental Philosophy of Religion. 2003. VIBS 143 Rem B. Edwards. What Caused the Big Bang? 2001. VIBS 115 Editorial Board of PAR Rod Nicholls (webmaster) Harriet E. Barber Deane-Peter Baker Stephen Clark D. de Leonardo Castro Gwen Griffith-Dickson G. Elijah Dann Jim Kanaris Russ Dumke William Sweet Carl Kalwaitis Pawel Kawalec Ruby Ramji Esther McIntosh Gregory MacLeod Ludwig Nagl CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 ELENA NAMLI, JAYNE SVENUNGSSON, AND ALANA M. VINCENT ONE Tikkun Olam—“Repairing the World”: Embodying Redemption and Utopia 9 VICTOR JELENIEWSKI SEIDLER TWO Jewish Hope Versus Revolutionary Hope 23 CATHERINE CHALIER THREE Adorno, Revolution, and Negative Utopia 33 MATTIAS MARTINSON FOUR Utopia and Revolution: The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer and Martin Buber 49 MICHAEL LÖWY FIVE A Secular Utopia: Remarks on the Löwith-Blumenberg Debate 65 JAYNE SVENUNGSSON SIX Thinking Revolution With and Beyond Levinas 79 CARL CEDERBERG SEVEN Topos and Utopia: the Place of Art in the Revolution 95 ALANA M. VINCENT EIGHT Berlin Debates: The Jews and the Russian Revolution 111 OLEG BUDNITSKII NINE Jewish Rationalism, Ethics, and Revolution: Hermann Cohen in Nevel 127 ELENA NAMLI TEN Reflections of Revolutionary Movements in American Yiddish Poetry: the Case of Proletpen 145 ALEXANDRA POLYAN ELEVEN Nihilism and the Resurrection of Political Space: Hannah Arendt’s Utopia? 161 JON WITTROCK viii JEWISH THOUGHT, UTOPIA AND REVOLUTION TWELVE Left (in) Time: Hegel, Benjamin, and Derrida Facing the Status Quo 173 BJÖRN THORSTEINSSON WORKS CITED 187 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 201 INDEX 205 INTRODUCTION Elena Namli, Jayne Svenungsson, and Alana M. Vincent Gershom Scholem has famously described Jewish messianism as “a theory of catastrophe,” which “stresses the revolutionary, cataclysmic element in the transition from every historical present to the Messianic future” (Scholem, 1971, p. 7). In response to the grim realities of the present world, Jewish thought has not tended to retreat into eschatological fantasy, but rather to project utopian visions precisely on to the present moment (at whatever period in history has constituted the “present”), envisioning redemptions that are concrete, immanent, and necessarily political in nature. In difficult times and through shifting historical contexts, the messianic hope in the Jewish tradition has functioned as a political vision: the dream of a peaceful kingdom, of a country to return to, or of a leader who will administer justice among the nations. Perhaps against this background it is not so surprising that Jewish messianism in modern times has been transposed, and lives on in secular political movements and ideologies. The Jewish messianic political-visionary move throws an important light on the significant presence of Jewish thinkers and actors in the different utopian and revolutionary currents that spread over both Western and Eastern Europe in the early twentieth century. By taking a fresh look at the historical and textual roots of the notions of utopia and revolution, this volume wishes to engage in the ongoing debate on political theology. In recent years, a number of prominent voices––ranging from Jürgen Habermas and Michael Walzer to Giorgio Agamben and Judith Butler––have in various ways explored the constructive politico-philosophical impulses inherent in traditional theological tropes, notions and values. However, in spite of this intense renewed interest in the political and philosophical potentials of both Jewish and Christian theology, there is still little reflection on the relation between religious ideas and tropes on the one hand, and political notions and ideologies on the other––the kind of meta- reflection that was carried out in the twentieth century by figures such as Ernst Bloch, Karl Löwith, and Hans Blumenberg. Albeit in different and partly conflicting ways, these thinkers all posed the larger question about the nature of the relation between Europe’s religious heritage—exemplified in Judaism and Christianity—and modern political ideas of progress, utopia, and revolution. The specific contribution of this book lies in approaching this question with particular regard to Judaism as a religious tradition. Is the relation of the Jewish religious heritage and modern progressivist ideologies essentially one of continuity—as Bloch and Löwith would have it—or of discontinuity—as Blumenberg forcefully claimed? What happens when ideas from the religious sphere are transferred to the political sphere? Are modern political notions
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