Jewish dialogical philosophy

Von »Ich und Du« bis zum Nachwort zu den diesbezüglichen Schriften versammelt der Band Bubers Grundtexte zum dialogischen Prinzip. In ihnen geht es um Begegnung, den Dialog zwischen dem Ich und dem Anderen, zwischen Mensch und »ewigem Du«, also Gott. Auf der Grundlage der Bedeutung von Beziehung vertieft Buber die Frage nach dem Einzelnen, den Anderen und nach Gottes Ort in der Zwischenmenschlichkeit. Für den Kenner des Hauptwerkes von Buber wird insbesondere der Zugang zu den handschriftlichen Vorlagen der Haupttexte wie »Ich und Du« oder »Zwiesprache« wertvoll sein.
Kommentierung: Andreas Losch unter Mitarbeit von Bernd Witte

Questa tesi è un tentativo di riflettere sul cammino filosofico di Martin Buber, in particolare di pensare alle conseguenze e le acquisizioni che il nuovo paradigma relazionale, inaugurato dalla sua filosofia dialogica, ha originato nel pensiero antropologico contemporaneo, indicando all'uomo occidentale un cammino che possa condurlo entro una dimensione di socialità autentica e fuori dal pericolo del nichilismo. Questa indagine procede attraverso tre passaggi: l'analisi dell'antropologia buberiana, l'indagine attorno al concetto di religiosità ed eclissi di Dio, inauguranti una nuova prospettiva morale, ed infine l'indagine sul significato della via sionista percorsa e riconosciuta dal filosofo come itinerario capace di realizzare un assetto sociale fondato su relazioni umane autentiche.

This thesis is an attempt to analyze the Martin Buber's philosophical walk. I tried to identify the consequences and acquisitions that the new relational paradigm, introduced by Martin Buber's dialogical philosophy, has originated in the contemporary anthropological thought. I tried to show the way in which Martin Buber indicated to the Western man an another way to know himself, a way that could lead him to a dimension of authentic sociality and get him out of a nihilist prospective. This study is developed through three steps: the analysis of buberian anthropology, the search about the concept of religiosity and eclipse of God, conceptions that inaugurate a new moral prospective and, at last, the search about the meaning of the Martin Buber's Zionist way to construct a new social order founded on authentic humans relations.

Martin Buber, Religione come presenza, Morcelliana, Brescia 2012. Italian translation of: Religion als Gegenwart. Foreword, pp. 5-36. Reviews:  Nunzio Bombaci: in: FilosoficaMente; Paola Ricci Sindoni: Buber e la difesa della religione dal diktat delle scienze umane (Avvenire, 22/09/2012);Marco Vannini: Religione come presenza (Rivista di Ascetica e di Mistica, XXXVIII, 2013, 1, pp. 328-329).

While much has been written about the dynamics of inter and intra-religious dialogue in the philosophical writings of R. Soloveitchik, this discussion has not been put before the lens of the philosophy of tolerance and pluralism.  After a brief review of some of the conceptual problems underlying these terms, I apply them to R. Soloveitchik's philosophical writings.  First I explore his attitude toward the group whom he found it most difficult to tolerate--secular Jews and non-Jews.  I then introduce the notion of incommensurability while examining his relation to people's of other faiths, an arena where doors are opened to both tolerance and pluralism.  Next, I explore his conception of cognitive pluralism as it is presented in The Halakhic Mind, marking both the limitations and the possibilities of pluralism in light of phenomenological theories of intuition and intention.  I then elicit Gadamer's notion of prejudice, showing how it resolves some of the tensions inherent in adopting a tolerant or pluralistic stance.  Finally I examine the consequences of R. Soloveitchik's dialectical methodology, claiming that R. Soloveitchik's  use of an "unsolvable" dialectic necessitates a pluralistic approach to ethics and ideas.  Finally,  I also question whether R. Soloveitchik can indeed maintain his desired dialectic schism.  Here I show how one side of the dialectic—that represented by such terms as Adam II, "humility", "gvura [strength]" or revelational consciousness—has a supplementary effect, that of destabilizing the dialectical schism through a process variously described as a recoil, withdrawal, retreat, catharsis, self-contraction or tzimtzum.  These terms describe a medium or disposition in which one can engage in both toleration and pluralism.

In this chapter I explore how Friedrich Nietzsche’s work The Anti-Christ inspired not only an unexpected charitable reading of Jesus’s life and thought in the New Testament, but also an unlikely sense of “holy envy.” I will examine how this unlikely sense of holy envy provides a unique opportunity for empathy in an American political context where political ideologies tend to be more divisive than religious or theological worldviews. The topic of Jesus is very tricky for Jews. In fact, the legacy of Christian anti-Judaism provides the hermeneutical lens for how Jews may interpret the life and teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. Incorporating aspects of Jesus’s life and teachings into a Jewish religious way of engaging the world, or even just appreciating them, can be an anathema to classical and even to many forms of modern Jewish thought. In this essay, I will explore the irony and power of how Nietzsche’s Jesus could inspire a contemporary Jewish thinker to admire and even connect to the Jesus of the New Testament.

The idea of dialogue in philosophical and theological anthropology emphasizes the dignity proper to each human being as a person, and also the human social nature. In the 20th century many humanists rediscovered the idea of interpersonal dialogue. In philosophical thought this idea is present in the works of Jewish thinkers: Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas. But the notion of dialogue can also be useful in Christian theological language.
The article looks at the use of the notion of dialogue in the definition of the relationship between God and human beings from the perspective of Christian personalism. A “dialogically oriented theology” shows the relationship between God and man as a dialogue based on divine grace. The dignity of every human person is rooted in the vocation to dialogue with the persons of the Holy Trinity. This dialogue with God defines human beings in their relation to the world. The dialogue goes far beyond everyday life and finds its fulfilment in eternal dialogue with God and with the community of the redeemed.