For more information on Franz Rosenzweig, visit Britannica.com.
Franz Rosenzweig
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Franz Rosenzweig |
| 5min Related Video: Franz Rosenzweig |
| Biography: Franz Rosenzweig |
The German-born philosopher and writer Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) was important for his formulations and definitions of Jewish-Christian relations.
Franz Rosenzweig was born at Kassel on Dec. 25, 1886. Rosenzweig first took up medicine; but, not finding this to his liking and discovering also a certain dichotomy in his life, he turned to the study of history and philosophy. He followed this with law studies. His early upbringing and education inclined him more and more to conversion to Christianity. However, in 1913 he attended an Orthodox Day of Atonement service and suddenly decided to halt his drift to Christianity and to adopt seriously the religion of his Jewish forefathers. It was these three themes, Christianity, Judaism, and Atonement (redemption), that formed the kernel of his life achievement in religious research.
While serving in the German army during World War I, Rosenzweig initiated a lively correspondence with Eugen Rosenstock concerning the relationship of Jewish and Christian theology. This correspondence was published (1935) only after Rosenzweig's death. He also started at this time one of his outstanding works - Der Stern der Erlösung (1921). In this he expressed his full thought on the nature of religion and the mutual relationship of Judaism and Christianity. Religion for Rosenzweig was a three-way relationship; he distinguished God, man, and the world as three distinct beings, none of which could be confused with the other. The point was important for Rosenzweig because on it he broke with the German idealism of his day and fore-shadowed the position later taken up by the existentialist philosophers of the 20th century. He then proceeded to define the triple relationship: between God and the world, it is one of creator and created; between God and man, it is one of revelator to the recipient (man) of that revelation; and between man and the world, it is one of redemption. Man has a redemptive function for the world: he helps to save it.
Rosenzweig then proceeded to define Jewish-Christian relations. He spoke of two Covenants, one between God and the Jews, the other between God and other men (the Christian Covenant). He considered the two Covenants as complementary elements in God's overall plan of redemption for the world and for man. Yet, Rosenzweig held, the two Covenants were mutually exclusive. This was a bold step for a Jewish thinker; it involved an admission that some limitation had to be placed on the Jewish claim of being exclusively and uniquely the Chosen People. Consequently, it involved much protest and controversy.
Rosenzweig started off as an idealist philosopher; he broke, however, with this philosophic idealism because his religious beliefs and studies interfered. In 1920 he also established his Freies Jüdisches Lehrhaus, an adult study center, at Frankfurt am Main. Its academic excellence and religious commitment provided an example on which many such institutions were founded in Germany. Unfortunately, he was attacked by a progressive paralysis in 1921. In 2 years he lost his ability to speak, write, or move. With his wife's help, however, he turned out several important minor works published as his Kleinere Schriften in 1937 together with an annotated version of 92 poems of Judah Halevi. He undertook (1925) a German translation of the Bible with Martin Buber, but he did not see its completion and publication (1938). He died on Dec. 9, 1929, at Frankfurt.
Further Reading
A full-length work in English is Nahum Norbert Glatzer, ed., Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (1953; rev. ed. 1961). See also Bernard Martin, comp., Great Twentieth Century Jewish Philosophers (1969), and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Judaism despite Christianity (1969).
| Encyclopedia of Judaism: Franz Rosenzweig |
(1886-1929). German Jewish philosopher and existentialist thinker. He was born in Kassel into an assimilated family, several of whose members converted to Christianity. A relative, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, had a profound influence on Rosenzweig, even to the extent of bringing him to the point of conversion. However, Rosenzweig changed his mind after attending Day of Atonement services in an Orthodox prayer house. The effect on him was dramatic and final. He recognized that he had no need to seek God in Christianity, since he had already found Him in Judaism. Further deep reflection led him to the conclusion that for the Christian, the path to God is indeed through adherence to Christianity. Rosenzweig was the first Jewish theologian to view Christianity as being as equally legitimate as Judaism, both having their origin in the Divine. He proposed the doctrine of the Two Covenants which in a mysterious way stand united before God. Christianity as the Judaism of the Gentiles could bring the nations of the world to establish their relationship with God. Judaism and Christianity can recognize each other's integrity, asking for understanding, not change. At the end of time they will be united, but meanwhile, neither must seek to change the other (see Interfaith Relations).
In his university years, Rosenzweig studied general philosophy, history, and classics. After his decision to remain loyal to Judaism, he devoted all his intellectual and spiritual gifts to Jewish and religious studies, teaching and writing. He went to Berlin, where he came under the influence of such figures as Hermann Cohen and Martin Buber. He continued a lengthy correspondence with Rosenstock-Huessy all through World War I. In the German army he saw service in Eastern Europe, where he witnessed at first hand something of the intense Jewish life in that part of the world. This had a profound effect on him.
In 1920, he helped found the influential Freies Judisches Lehrhaus (Free Jewish House of Learning) in Frankfurt. This institution became one of the most important and prestigious centers for Jewish studies, attracting the most distinguished Jewish scholars in postwar Germany.
Rosenzweig's major work is Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star of Redemption). The work was begun in 1918 on postcards written home from the front and completed by Rosenzweig after his return from the war. He teaches that there are three elements in the totality of existence: God, the Universe, and Man. Each of them is interrelated through the process of Creation, Revelation, and Redemption. The Universe is related to God through Creation: God is related to Man through Revelation and Redemption: Man is related to God through Revelation and Redemption. So too the Universe is related to God and Man through the triangle of the three forces. When one places the triangles on each other, a star is formed---the Star of Redemption.
For Rosenzweig, the Bible is not the last word in a onetime Revelation. Revelation is the ongoing process of God identifying Himself to the seeking individual. The sanctity of the Scriptures and the validity of the commandments will speak to the individual who opens his heart in a love relationship with the Divine teaching. This takes time and patience. When Rosenzweig was once asked whether he prayed with tefillin (phylacteries), he replied, "Not yet."
His existential approach is also illustrated in his attitude to the Bible. The teachings of the various schools of Bible criticism in no way affected his veneration of the Scriptures. He avowed that while the story of Balaam's ass is a fairy tale during most of the year, it embraces the word of God speaking to him when it is read from the Scroll on the appointed Sabbath. For him, the letter "R" need not stand for the "Redactor" who, according to Higher Criticism, collated various sources of the biblical text, but for Rabbenu (our Master, Moses). Ultimately, it is the religious interpretation which makes the message holy.
Among Rosenzweig's other works are his translation into German of Judah Halevi's liturgical poems and his classic joint work with Martin Buber on the translation of the Bible into German. They reached the Book of Isaiah before Rosenzweig's death and the project was completed by Buber.
In 1921 a progressive paralysis began to affect Rosenzweig and he ultimately lost all power of speech and movement. Nevertheless, he continued his literary work, pointing with a single finger to the letters on a typewriter while his wife pressed down the keys.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Franz Rosenzweig |
Rosenzweig, Franz (fränts rō'zəntsvīkh'), 1886-1929, German-Jewish philosopher, b. Kassel. As a youth he was thoroughly trained in German philosophy and, after a near conversion to Christianity, dedicated himself to Jewish scholarship. His chief work, The Star of Redemption (1921; tr. of 2d ed. 1971), begun while he was a soldier in World War I, proved him to be one of the most original of modern Jewish thinkers. He drew from Orthodox, Reform, and Zionist views and created a philosophy that greatly attracted Jewish youth. Later, with his friend Martin Buber, he translated the Hebrew Scriptures into German. Other works in English include On Jewish Learning, ed. by N. N. Glatzer (1955).
Bibliography
See Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought, presented by N. N. Glatzer (2d ed. 1961); B. Martin, comp., Great Twentieth-Century Jewish Philosophers: Shestov, Rosenzweig, Buber (1969).
| Wikipedia: Franz Rosenzweig |
Franz Rosenzweig (December 25, 1887 – December 10, 1929) was an influential Jewish theologian and philosopher.
Contents |
Early life
Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany to a minimally observant Jewish family. His education was primarily secular, studying history and philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Munich, and Freiburg.
While researching his doctoral dissertation on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—entitled Hegel and the State—Rosenzweig reacted against Hegel's idealism and favoured a philosophy which did not begin with an abstract notion of the human. This philosophy has come to be known by several different names, including speech-thinking and existentialism.
Rosenzweig, under the influence of his close friend Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy considered conversion to Christianity. Determining to embrace the faith as the early Christians did, he resolved to first live as an observant Jew before becoming Christian. Famously, after attending Yom Kippur services at a small Orthodox synagogue in Berlin, Germany, he underwent a mystical experience. He as a result became a baal teshuva.[1] Although he never put pen to paper to explain what transpired, he never again entertained the object of converting to Christianity, deciding to remain a Jew. In 1913, he turned to Jewish philosophy. His letters to his friend, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, whom he had nearly followed into Christianity, have been published as Judaism Despite Christianity.
Rosenzweig was a student of Hermann Cohen, and the two became close.
The Star of Redemption
Rosenzweig's major work is The Star of Redemption, in which he expounds his new philosophy, a description of the relationships between God, humanity and world as they are connected by creation, revelation and redemption. In this work he is critical of all Western philosophy that seeks to efface the fear of death and replace actual human existence with an ideal. Hegel's Idealist philosophy is a primary target of such attacks.
| “ | It was in the Macedonian trenches that this work of Franz Rosenzweig was written.
If one considers the density, the concentratedness of this text, the constructive achievement and the linguistic sensibility, then one can only wonder at how someone can write such a thing on military post cards to his mother in Kassel, who then copies it from torn scraps of paper so that it becomes a book -this is among the most astonishing events.[2] |
” |
Collaboration with Buber
Rosenzweig, while critical of Jewish scholar Martin Buber's early work, became close friends with him upon their meeting. This friendship lasted despite their differences of political opinion: Buber was a Zionist, while Rosenzweig was a strong defender of the German-Jewish heritage and felt that a return to Israel would embroil the Jews into a worldly history they should eschew (this position was given a tragic tone by the death of Rosenzweig's wife in a concentration camp long after he himself had perished of disease). Further, Rosenzweig criticized Buber’s dialogical philosophy, because it is based not only on the I-Thou relation, but also on I-It, a notion that Rosenzweig rejected as idealistic. He thought the counterpart to I-Thou should be He-It, namely “as He said and it became”: building the "it" around the human "I" – the human mind – is an idealistic mistake.[3] Famously, Rosenzweig and Buber worked together on a rather literal translation of the Torah from Hebrew to German. The translation, while contested, has led to several other translations (in other languages) using the same methodology and principles. Their publications concerning the nature and philosophy of translation are still widely read.
Educational activities
Rosenzweig, unimpressed with the impersonal learning of the academy, founded the Independent House of Jewish Learning, a place for adult education that sought to promote Jewish literacy and involvement. His goal in turning aside more respectable University positions was to engage in dialogue with human beings rather than merely accumulate knowledge. The Lehrhaus, as it was known in Germany, was an innovative Jewish Free University, which produced many prominent Jewish intellectuals. In October 1922 Rudolf Hallo took over the leadership of the Lehrhaus. It stayed open until 1930, and was reopened by Martin Buber in 1933.
Illness and death
Rosenzweig suffered from the muscular degenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and towards the end of his life had to write with the help of his wife Edith, who would recite letters of the alphabet until he indicated for her to stop, continuing until she could guess the word or phrase he intended (or, at other times, Rosenzweig would point to the letter on the plate of his typewriter).
Rosenzweig's final attempt to communicate his thought, via the laborious typewriter-alphabet method, consisted in the partial sentence: "And now it comes, the point of all points, which the Lord has truly revealed to me in my sleep, the point of all points for which there—". The writing was interrupted by his doctor, with whom he had a short discussion using the same method. When the doctor left, Rosenzweig did not wish to continue with the writing, and he died in the night of December 10, 1929, in Frankfurt, the sentence left unfinished.[4]
Rosenzweig was buried on December 12, 1929. There was no oration; however, Buber read Psalm 73.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Emil L. Fackenheim (1994). To Mend the World. Indiana University Press. ISBN 025332114X. http://books.google.com/books?id=By-Ayj_p-cQC&pg=PA317&dq=teshuva&sig=bBuZO705NaNe_SH9MApdcLB-qUA.
- ^ The Political Theology of Paul by Jacob Taubes, Stanford University Press, 2004, page 64.
- ^ Franz Rosenzweig in Encyclopedia Judaica by Ephraim Meir and Rivka G. Horwitz, Thomson Gale, 2007.
- ^ Nahum N. Glatzer, Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought (New York: Schocken Books, 1961, 2nd edn.), pp. 174–6.
External links
- Arnold Betz's essay on Rosenzweig and Star of Redemption at the Vanderbilt University
- Franz Rosenzweig's Der Stern der Erlösung online (in German)
- Review of The Star of Redemption by Spengler at Asia Times
Christian and Jewish interfaith topics
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Truth |
| Martin Buber |
| Magen David |
 | Who was Franz Joseph? Read answer... |
| Who is franz nachtegall? Read answer... |
| Where was Franz Ferdinand from? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | Can an EU spouse with EU Rosenzweig is allow to live work in other EU countries legally? |
| Who was franz schurbert? |
| Who was franz ferdi? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Encyclopedia of Judaism. The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Franz Rosenzweig". Read more |
Related answers
- Who is Adam Rosenzweig?
- Who is Natalie Franz?
- Who was Franz Ferdinand?
- Who was Franz Boas?
- Who is Franz Klammer?
- Who was Franz Marc?
ADVERTISEMENT
