Reading Hannah Arendt as a Biblical Thinker

This article presents an interpretation of the role that religious concepts play in Hannah Arendt’s political thought. While Arendt is typically regarded as a secular thinker, I argue that she turns to resources found in biblical traditions of thought when she finds Greek and Roman traditions to be...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Irwin, Christopher (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Netherlands [2015]
In: Sophia
Year: 2015, Volume: 54, Issue: 4, Pages: 545-561
IxTheo Classification:BH Judaism
CA Christianity
HA Bible
TK Recent history
VA Philosophy
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Religious Thought
B Biblical thought
B Political Theory
B Hannah Arendt
B The Bible
B Secularism
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article presents an interpretation of the role that religious concepts play in Hannah Arendt’s political thought. While Arendt is typically regarded as a secular thinker, I argue that she turns to resources found in biblical traditions of thought when she finds Greek and Roman traditions to be lacking in vital respects. The concepts that she associates most strongly with the Bible—natality, forgiveness, and plurality?are necessary to her vision of a political community that is genuinely pluralistic and which understands the nature and implications of human action. By examining the role that biblical concepts play in Arendt’s thought, this article explores the possibility of setting her work in dialogue with a range of Jewish and Christian traditions. Placing Arendt in such a dialogue also opens up the question of what it means to be a "biblical thinker."
ISSN:1873-930X
Contains:Enthalten in: Sophia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11841-015-0503-z