Hope for Our Time: Key Trends in the Thought of Martin Buber

by Avraham Shapira, Jeffrey M. Green (Translator)

Overview

Martin Buber's work ranged across disciplines and modes of expression to include philosophy, religion, social studies, and literature. Buber never presented a comprehensive statement of his worldview in any of his central works and repeated time and again that he had no "doctrine." In this book, Avraham Shapira traces the history of Buber's ideas and locates underlying structures which unite Buber's thought. Ultimately, Hope for Our Time shows the connection between Buber's philosophy and his spiritual biography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438419541
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	263
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Avraham Shapira is Professor, Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University. He is the author of The Kabbalistic and Hasidic Sources of A.D. Gordon's Thought.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Comments on Buber's Means of Expression

1. Polar Duality

2. The Cause and the Person: Destiny and Vocation

3. A Divided Heart and Man's Double

4. Existential Tensions and Early Struggles

5. A Conversion

6. Duality and Its Structures

7. Distance - Relation

8. Vortex - Direction

9. Moment - Eternity

10. Concluding Remarks

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

Martin Buber remains one of the truly important religious teachers of the twentieth century. His 'philosophy of dialogue' and his commitment to personal encounter with the Other have had great impact on psychotherapy and the social sciences as well as on philosophy and theology. Avraham Shapira, a leading Israeli exponent of Buber, has written a study that captures both the Jewish and German roots of this unique figure. Buber's teaching is treated here as a living and powerful force, transcending all the denominational and religious/secular gaps that divide contemporary Jewry.— Arthur Green, Philip W. Lown Professor of Jewish Thought, Brandeis University

"Avraham Shapira writes with his heart as well as his head. Empathy, often nourished by personal contact, is the key to his unerring ability to illuminate the rich legacy of Zionist giants such as Martin Buber, A.D. Gordon, and Gershom Scholem. Hope for Our Time is a masterful analysis of the conceptual structures that inform and animate the entire corpus of Buber's thought."— Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary"

From the Publisher

Based on his 1984 doctoral dissertation identifying dual structures in the thought of Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (1878-1965), Shapira (still at Tel-aviv U.) examines Buber's concept of I-thou, I- it polarity to reconcile various dichotomies: his mystical and dialogical stages<-->with Shapira positing a transitional conversion stage; the existential duality that characterizes modern "lived experience"; distance-relation; vortex-direction; and moment-eternity. Dedicated to the memory of leading contemporary Jewish studies scholar Alexander Altmann. Translated from the Hebrew . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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