Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:58:42.267Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - A Christian Anthropology? Early Jewish Readings of Sein und Zeit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Daniel M. Herskowitz
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

In this chapter we will explore early Jewish interpretations of Heidegger’s philosophy that understood it as exhibiting specific Christian presuppositions regarding human existence. As we have seen in Chapter 1, the question of the significance and role of the theological undertones in Heidegger’s Dasein analytic is central to its early Christian reception. From a common Jewish standpoint, insofar as Jewish thought seeks to stay clear of Christian influences, the question of whether or not Heidegger’s thought harbors layers of Christian tradition has ramifications for the possibility of its productivity for Jewish expression. Accordingly, one way to display its inappropriateness for Jewish thought is to uncover its Christian resonances, and conversely, establishing its potential suitability for Jewish thought would require reading it as a theologically neutral portrayal of human existence. Either way, the question of secularization must be confronted: if the existential analysis of Dasein involves de-theologization and ontologization of Christian notions, is the result universally valid and neutral structures which can potentially illuminate being-Jewish? Or is something of their origin inevitably preserved, so that regardless of the absence of any explicit Christian message, Heidegger’s system is stamped by a foreign doctrine and as such at odds with Judaism?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×