God Interrupted: Heresy and the European Imagination between the World Wars

271 Pages·2009·1.99 MB·English

by  Benjamin Lazier

God Interrupted
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God Interrupted
heresy and the european
imagination between
the world wars
Benjamin Lazier
princeton university press
princeton and oxford
Copyright#2008byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,6OxfordStreet,Woodstock,
OxfordshireOX201TW
AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lazier,Benjamin,1971–
Godinterrupted:heresyandtheEuropeanimaginationbetweenthe
worldwars/BenjaminLazier.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex.
ISBN978-0-691-13670-7(hardcover:alk.paper) 1. God
(Judaism)—Historyofdoctrines—20thcentury. 2. Philosophy,
Jewish—History—20thcentury. 3. Jonas,Hans,1903–1993. 4. Scholem,
GershomGerhard,1897–1982. 5. Strauss,Leo. 6. Heresy—History—20th
century. 7. Pantheism—History—20thcentury. 8. Gnosticism—History—20th
century. 9. Europe—Intellectuallife—20thcentury. I. Title.
BM610.L39352008
296.3'110904–dc22 2008005405
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThepublicationofthisbookwasmadepossibleinpartbyagenerousgrantfromtheKoret
Foundation.
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabon
Printedonacid-freepaper.?
press.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents
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‘‘And what isthis God?’’I asked theearthandit answered:
‘‘Iamnot He,’’andallthe things that are ontheearth
confessed thesame answer. Iaskedthe seaand the deeps and
the creepingthingswith living souls,andthey replied, ‘‘We
arenot your God.Look aboveus.’’Iaskedthe heaven, thesun,
themoon,thestars,and‘‘No,’’theysaid,‘‘wearenottheGodfor
whom you arelooking.’’And Isaid toall those things which
standaboutthegatesofmysenses:‘‘Tellmesomethingaboutmy
God,youwhoarenotHe.TellmesomethingaboutHim.’’And
they cried out ina loud voice: ‘‘He made us.’’
—Augustine, Confessions
Whatisthe world? The world isour whole existence, as it has
been,and is, conditionedby sin. There hascome into being a
cosmos which, becausewe nolonger know God, isnot
Creation. ... Insofarasthisworldisourworld,itistheworld
intowhichsinhasentered.Inthisworld,onthisearth,andunder
this heaven, there isnoredemption, nodirect life.
—KarlBarth, The Epistle to theRomans
Our world istruly the morphologicalworlditself, an unending
revelation of matter.
—Hans Jonas
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Contents
PrefaceandAcknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part One: Overcoming Gnosticism
Chapter One
The Gnostic Return 27
Chapter Two
Romans inWeimar 37
Chapter Three
Overcoming Gnosticism 49
Chapter Four
After Auschwitz,Earth 60
Part Two: The Pantheism Controversy
Chapter Five
Pantheism Revisited 73
Chapter Six
The Pantheism Controversy 93
Chapter Seven
FromGod toNature 111
Chapter Eight
Natural Right and Judaism 127
Part Three: Redemption through Sin
Chapter Nine
Redemption through Sin 139
Chapter Ten
JewishGnosticism 146
Chapter Eleven
Raising Pantheism 161