Sacramental Existence and Embodied Theology in Buber’s Representation of Ḥasidism

Martin Buber denied consistently that he was a theologian because he repudiated abstract discourse about God. However, he did affirm that intersubjective events in the world express theological truth, even if that truth cannot be possessed or professed thereafter as noetic content. In this paper I i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Main Author: Shonkoff, Sam Berrin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2017
In: The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Further subjects:B Martin Buber embodied theology Ḥasidism sacrament narrative
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Martin Buber denied consistently that he was a theologian because he repudiated abstract discourse about God. However, he did affirm that intersubjective events in the world express theological truth, even if that truth cannot be possessed or professed thereafter as noetic content. In this paper I introduce a concept of “embodied theology” to elucidate this nuance in Buber’s religious thought, and I show how his Ḥasidic writings shed unique light on these matters. Through hermeneutical investigations of his Ḥasidic tales vis-à-vis the original sources, I illuminate Buber’s conviction that genuine sages convey theological meaning through the very spiritual-corporeal dynamics of their lives—or what Buber calls their “sacramental existence.”
ISSN:1477-285X
Contains:In: The journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/1477285X-12341282