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Dialogue and revelation in the thought of Martin Buber

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Steven T. Katz
Steven T. Katz
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College
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Extract

Central to Buber's philosophy of I-Thou is his understanding of the related notions of dialogue and revelation and his espousal of a non-propositional account of revelation framed in the language and structure of personal dialogical encounter. The consequent re-interpretation of revelation in this form has been widely influential in contemporary theological circles, especially among those theologians and philosophers of religion broadly known as existentialists. However, the wide dissemination and influence of this position does not guarantee its validity. This paper will try to show that the dialogical account of revelation, at least in the form given it by Buber, is logically and philosophically deficient, being based on a set of misleading analogies between inter-human and Divine-human relations.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 57 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

page 58 note 1 Brown, James, Subject and Object in Modern Theology (1955), p. 115.Google Scholar

page 58 note 2 I and Thou, p. 51.Google Scholar

page 58 note 3 Ibid. p. 33.

page 59 note 1 I and Thou p. 62.Google Scholar

page 60 note 1 Between Man and Man, p. 12.Google Scholar

page 60 note 2 I and Thou, p. 33.Google Scholar

page 60 note 3 I and Thou, pp. 32 f. in Smith's, R. G. translation. (This is the translation of I and Thou referred to throughout this paper.)Google Scholar

page 61 note 1 I and Thou, pp. 110 f.Google Scholar

page 61 note 2 Ibid. p. 112.

page 61 note 3 Eclipse of God, p. 14.Google Scholar

page 61 note 4 A much more detailed summary of Buber's view of revelation will be found in my ‘Buber's Concept of Revelation. Some Critical Reflections’ in Proceedings of the Seventh World Congress of Jewish Studies 1977 (forthcoming).

page 64 note 1 See Buber's discussion of the episode of the ‘Burning Bush’ and the events surrounding this revelation in his book Moses (N.Y., 1959).Google Scholar

page 64 note 2 For more on the philosophical issues being considered here, especially as they touch upon the question of religious experience see my ‘Language, Epistemology and Mystical Pluralism’ in Katz, S. (ed.) Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis (New York 1978).Google Scholar

page 65 note 1 I and Thou, p. 112.Google Scholar

page 67 note 1 Eclipse of God, p. 28.Google Scholar