Samuel Hirsch, Hegel, and the Legacy of Ethical Monotheism
This essay examines Samuel Hirsch’s Religious Philosophy of the Jews as a forerunner of twentieth-century works of ethical monotheism in modern Jewish thought. In particular, it explores Hirsch’s use of the dichotomy between monotheism and idolatry as a way to resist Hegel’s attempts to incorporate...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2020]
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 2020, Volume: 113, Issue: 1, Pages: 89-110 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hirsch, Samuel 1815-1889, Die Religionsphilosophie der Juden
/ Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 1770-1831, Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Religion
/ Bible. Genesis 3
/ Freedom
/ Monotheism
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| RelBib Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism BH Judaism NBC Doctrine of God NBE Anthropology TJ Modern history VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
Samuel Hirsch
B Die Religionsphilosophie der Juden / The Religious Philosophy of the Jews B Emmanuel Levinas B G. W. F. Hegel B Genesis 3 B Franz Rosenzweig B Hermann Cohen B ethical monotheism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This essay examines Samuel Hirsch’s Religious Philosophy of the Jews as a forerunner of twentieth-century works of ethical monotheism in modern Jewish thought. In particular, it explores Hirsch’s use of the dichotomy between monotheism and idolatry as a way to resist Hegel’s attempts to incorporate Judaism into his developmental history of religion. Hirsch frames his opposition to the Hegelian account of religion by means of providing a rival interpretation of Genesis 3 to that offered by Hegel in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. After juxtaposing Hegel’s and Hirsch’s respective interpretations of Genesis 3, I explore Hirsch’s account of religion, which, unlike Hegel’s, is presented in terms of the dichotomy of true and false religion. Finally, I will briefly highlight how Hirsch’s basic strategy for understanding Judaism vis-à-vis other religions—namely, casting the dichotomy between monotheism and idolatry in starkly ethical terms—is taken up and utilized by Hermann Cohen and Emmanuel Levinas in the twentieth century. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816019000361 |