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This book explores the co-dependency of monotheism and idolatry by examining the thought of several prominent twentieth-century Jewish philosophers Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, and Levinas. While all of these thinkers were keenly aware of the pitfalls of scriptural theism, to differing degrees they each succumbed to the temptation to personify transcendence, even as they tried either to circumvent or to restrain it by apophatically purging kataphatic descriptions of the deity. Derrida and Wyschogrod, by contrast, carried the project of denegation one step further, embarking on a path that culminated in the aporetic suspension of belief and the consequent removal of all images from God, a move that seriously compromises the viability of devotional piety.
The inquiry into apophasis, transcendence, and immanence in these Jewish thinkers is symptomatic of a larger question. Recent attempts to harness the apophatic tradition to construct a viable postmodern negative theology, a religion without religion, are not radical enough. Not only are these philosophies of transcendence guilty of a turn to theology that defies the phenomenological presupposition of an immanent phenomenality, but they fall short on their own terms, inasmuch as they persist in employing metaphorical language that personalizes transcendence and thereby runs the risk of undermining the irreducible alterity and invisibility attributed to the transcendent other.
The logic of apophasis, if permitted to run its course fully, would exceed the need to posit some form of transcendence that is not ultimately a facet of immanence. Apophatic theologies, accordingly, must be supplanted by a more far-reaching apophasis that surpasses the theolatrous impulse lying coiled at the crux of theism, an apophasis of apophasis, based on accepting an absolute nothingness to be distinguished from the nothingness of an absolute that does not signify the unknowable One but rather the manifold that is the pleromatic abyss at being's core. Hence, the much-celebrated metaphor of the gift must give way to the more neutral and less theologically charged notion of an unconditional givenness in which the distinction between giver and given collapses. To think givenness in its most elemental, phenomenological sense is to allow the apparent to appear as given without presuming a causal agency that would turn that given into a gift.
- Sales Rank: #1160539 in Books
- Published on: 2014-02-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.10" h x 1.60" w x 9.20" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 576 pages
Review
"We are used to apophatic theology in the service of Christianity. Here, though, Elliot Wolfson brings his deep knowledge of Kabbalah and modern Jewish thought to a rich consideration of apophaticism in Judaism. His readings of Buber, Cohen, Derrida, Levinas, Rosenzweig, and Wyschogrod are nothing less than riveting, as are his readings of thinkers such as Heidegger and Marion. This is a book that all students of modern Jewish thought and its interactions with European philosophy will want to read."-Kevin Hart, University of Virginia
"This book, at once meticulous and daring, makes an important contribution to theology--one that may end up, uncomfortably, moving the discourse beyond itself. The argument is developed through a remarkable combination of reason, mysticism, analysis of experience, and historical knowledge."-Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College
"This is a wonderful contribution to the field of philosophy and theology by one of the most important thinkers writing in English. His command of the material is masterful and his argument persuasive. It is outstanding and a real intellectual tour de force."-Aaron W. Hughes, University of Rochester
About the Author
Elliot R. Wolfson is the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Among Wolfsons many books, Fordham has published Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, winner of the 2005 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship. Wolfson had earlier won this award in 1995, as well as the American Academy of Religion Award for the Best Book in category of Historical Studies, for his Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism. Wolfson's A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination won the 2012 American Academy of Religion Award for Constructive and Reflective Studies.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A sustained engagement with contemporary Jewish thought
By Dustin Atlas
While Elliot Wolfson has employed contemporary Jewish thinking in many of his works, using it to explicate Kabbalah, Dreams, Hassidism, and Phenomenology (and vice-versa), in this book he directly tackles a series of the most important 20th century Jewish thinkers: Cohen, Rosenzweig, Buber, Levinas, Derrida, and Wyschogrod. Organized around the theme of negative theology (apophasis) Wolfson combs through these thinkers looking for traces of 'theomania': ways in which they, despite their intentions, falling into the trap of anthropomorphism if only in order to establish a God-relationship. To take Levinas as an example: after carefully demonstrating that his work is closer to Heidegger's than most Levinasians would like to admit, Wolfson makes a compelling argument that Levinas' insistence upon preserving a inter-personal ethics leads him into an ethically problematic personification of the divine. Given the prevalence of near hagiographic writings on Levinas, this treatment is most welcome.
This book's studies are valuable if only because Wolfson manages to engage these writers in a manner that is both sympathetic and critical: these are not the usual 'pious' readings that emerge from Jewish studies. Conversely, the critiques offered are 'internal,' in that these thinkers are shown to be lacking on their own terms. More importantly: these thinkers are explored in relation to theological and atheological questions that are being asked outside of strictly 'Jewish' thinking, and to this end he treats a host of contemporary Christian thinkers (Caputo, DeVries, and company), avoiding the usual parochialism that dogs much contemporary philosophy and (a)theology. Metaphors and concepts that typically stand in the way of thinking--such as the 'face,' the 'gift,' the 'differential'--are subjected to an almost ruthless scrutiny. Wolfson thus drags the entire discourse surrounding apophasis and atheology forward, subjecting a host of texts and thinkers to a rigorous criticism they have too often managed to avoid.
This is essential reading for anyone engaged with contemporary religious thinking.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Apophasis of Apophasis
By Trish Tillman
Giving Beyond the Gift is, on the one hand, esoteric and meticulously artistic in its language, and, on the other hand, relevant to the questions and ponderings of the average person living in the (post)modern world. It’s rare to find an academic work that also manages to relate itself to universal questions of belief.
In this case, the universal question of belief that Wolfson examines is the question of belief itself, or whether it’s possible to reach a theism that is completely free from the “idols” of anthropomorphism and theological materialism, which Wolfson calls “theomania.” Although Wolfson most explicitly assigns himself the task of critiquing the apophatic thought of several twentieth-century Jewish thinkers, he situates them within the deeper context of man’s grappling with the idea of God throughout the history of both Western and Eastern thought. Although traditions as diverse as Mahayana Buddhism, Platonism and neo-Platonism, the Medieval via negativa, and Enlightenment rationalism all play a role, Wolfson controls his material and manages to subsume it all into a call for a new, radical apophasis of apophasis.
Some might find this troubling, but all will find this book is well worth the read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Giving is in the receiving
By The Student
Rarely do you find a scholar who continually breaks new ground in his or her publications - Wolfson is an exception. This book not only breaks new ground, but also deals with one of the questions of our age: how can we, in a postmodern world, have a concept of God?
Bringing both modern philosophers and Jewish thinkers to bear on Judaism, Wolfson explores the paradox of transcendence and immanence vis-a-vis idolatry, in light of apophatic theology and the postmodern condition.
This is not a casual read; one actively engages Wolfson in his exploration of these topics via reading, and through that engagement, we learn to think anew, to think more deeply. Thus, I would heartily recommend this book to those interested in theology, philosophy, and/or Jewish thought.
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