Leora Batnitzky. Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. x, 281 pp.
This is a fantastic book, certain to stimulate many debates, and not just about its subject, Franz Rosenzweig. At the heart of Batnitzky's text is an argument about religious truth and the form it takes in the modern world, about “idolatry” and “representation.” As understood by the author, the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Pennsylvania Press
2003
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2003, Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Pages: 165-167 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This is a fantastic book, certain to stimulate many debates, and not just about its subject, Franz Rosenzweig. At the heart of Batnitzky's text is an argument about religious truth and the form it takes in the modern world, about “idolatry” and “representation.” As understood by the author, the law against idolatry did not mean for Rosenzweig what it meant for Maimonides and Hermann Cohen; it does not reflect the epistemological conundra that go into the presentation of a God who outstrips all sensual image and mental representation. Instead, Batnitzky takes idolatry to mean the act of fixing upon one single image, thereby limiting God's freedom to appear in different forms. In this light, the term representation gets pulled away from the German Vorstellung (i.e. with the presentation of an abstract truth) and aligned with the verb vertreten (suggesting how one represents that truth through one's very being, one's own physical existence and image). |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0364009403481002 |