© Columbia University Press
Metaphysics of the Profane: The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem
Paper, 352 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12657-1
$32.00
/ £22.00
August, 2003
Cloth, 352 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12656-4
$90.00
/ £62.00
"Jacobson's superb undertaking reveals profound insights in the early writings of Benjamin and Scholem that may serve well in understanding and resolving contemporary problems in political theology. . . . Recommended." — Choice
"Metaphysics of the Profane is an important, thoughtful, profound, and very welcome study." — Robert Weldon Whalen, German Studies Review
"Metaphysics of the Profane is the first book to make this intellectual exchange clear... This book would be suitable for all Judaica, academic, and public libraries and any institution with an interest in philosophy." — Magali Milmaniene, Association of Jewish Libraries
"The importance of this passionate intellectual friendship … has long been recognized. But surprisingly, we have lacked a fine-grained, conceptually sophisticated examination until now… Jacobson has given us a compelling restatement of the argument that Scholem was the legitimate heir of Benjamin's early intentions." — John McCole, The German Quarterly
"In this erudite discussion … Jacobson moves from a detailed exploration of Benjamin's and Scholem's works on the messianic in history, to their conceptions of language, to a discussion of notions of justice, [offering] deeper insight into the speculative philosophy of metaphysics through a close reading of original texts." — Hannah Holtschneider, Journal of Theological Studies
"The term 'political theology' often invokes images of revolutionary political struggles prompted by messianic or apocalyptic expectations. As Eric Jacobson shows ... such revolutionary Messianism ... is not solely the province of Catholic liberation theology and Protestant theologies of hope, but is also characteristic of the writing of two of the more prominent Jewish thinkers in the twentieth century. … Jacobson's account of the early religious and political thoughts of Benjamin and Scholem is full of illuminating insights into the interdependence of these two thinkers, and into the distinctiveness of their politics." — Thomas A. James, Journal of Political Theology
"Jacobson reveals ... how the notion of an intensive magic resounds throughout Benjamin's work." — Il Sole 24 Ore (Milan)
"[Jacobson's] compelling proposal concerns the Judaic concepts in anarchism, leading through the traces of Gershom Scholem's thought, one of the exponents of the religious poles of Central European Jews with a utopian sensibility." — Il Gazzettino (Venice)
"[They] were riveted by the question of 'origins' and the recovery of lost meanings, on truth as hidden, part of a greater structure waiting to be revealed, and the possibility of redemptive moments. …. —what Eric Jacobson has described as the metaphysics of the profane." — Steven E. Aschheim, , Beyond the Boarder: The German-Jewish Legacy Abroad
"Jacobson regards as a key question 'whether redemption is initiated prior to or only after the arrival of the messiah' [which] , he argues, … remains unresolved in Benjamin's thought." — R. Lane, Reading Walter Benjamin: Writing Through the Catastrophe
"Jacobson's work is focused on the early political and theological concepts of both authors from the years 1915-1923, seeking to reconstruct Benjamin's and Scholem's early discussions on politics and theology.... These ideas, which the authors established together in an early phase, were central for both their later thinking and were to have a tremendous impact on contemporary philosophy and Jewish studies in this century." — FU-Nachrichten
"Eric Jacobson's work, Metaphysics of the Profane, offers a new analysis of one of the central problems in the work of Benjamin and Scholem. The concept of political theology represents neither an oxymoron for the utopian Benjamin nor the philologist Scholem but rather the only possibility to confront the crisis of political theory in the 20th century.... Due to the careful use of the sources and the ability to render Benjamin's and Scholem's thinking in the context of German culture, Jacobson's [study] gives a detailed portrayal of philosophical hope and rapid disappointment of these two Jewish thinkers who were to embody a radical moment of political utopia in our time." — Giulio Busi, Department of Jewish Studies, Free University of Berlin
"The textual basis of this work is comprehensive, including several important texts that are discussed in this study for the first time. Jacobson’s carefully selected examples and thorough analysis provide us from now on with a firm basis of discussion for this fundamental aspect of Scholem’s and Benjamin’s contributions to twentieth-century thought. This work has to be seen as a major achievement in the understanding of the early writings of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, demonstrating the complex interrelationship between their ideas, reliance on one another, and their conflicts. Jacobson introduces several new subjects and problems, in addition to hitherto neglected texts, into the academic discourse. His erudition and exhaustive analysis, as well as his profound insights, are remarkable." — Joseph Dan, Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem