Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem are regarded as two of the most famous and influential Jewish thinkers and writers of the twentieth century, and their late work is well-known. The importance of the intense intellectual partnership they forged in the years between the First World War and 1923, however, is less appreciated and understood. This is the first book to make the works of this untranslated and unpublished early period -- including Benjamin's and Scholem's ideas on messianism, language, divine justice, and the quest for a philosophy of Judaism -- accessible to a wider audience.
Author(s): Eric Jacobson
Edition: 0
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 352
contents......Page 8
preface......Page 12
introduction......Page 16
Part I Messianism......Page 32
chapter 1 the messianic idea in walter benjamin’s early writings......Page 34
chapter 2 gershom scholem’s theological politics......Page 67
Part II On the Origins of Language and the True Names of Things......Page 98
chapter 3 on the origins of language......Page 100
chapter 4 gershom scholem and the name of god: “on language as such” reconsidered......Page 138
Part III A Redemptive Conception of Justice......Page 170
chapter 5 prophetic justice......Page 172
chapter 6 justice, violence, and redemption......Page 208
abbreviations......Page 248
notes......Page 250
bibliography......Page 332
index......Page 346
