Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T14:00:28.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yeshayahu Leibowitz: Jewish existentialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2014

ROI BENBASSAT
ROI BENBASSAT*
Affiliation:
Institute of Comparative Ethics, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany e-mail: rbhead@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents Yeshayahu Leibowitz's conception of Judaism and characterizes his position as typically religious-existentialist. It confronts Leibowitz's conception with Kantian ethics, refutes the analogy made between these two conceptions, and shows that Leibowitz's response to Kant is analogous to that of Kierkegaard, the Christian existentialist thinker. It considers Leibowitz's religious position a Jewish variation of Kierkegaard's notion of faith in the absurd. Such an analogy enables us not only to elucidate Leibowitz's religious conception but also to evaluate the implications of Kierkegaard's religious thought in a broader context.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 141 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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.)

References

Benbassat, Roi (2012) ‘Kierkegaard's relation to Kantian ethics reconsidered’, Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook, 49–74.Google Scholar
Davenport, John J. (2001) ‘The meaning of Kierkegaard's choice between the aesthetic and the ethical: a response to MacIntyre’, in Davenport, John & Rudd, Anthony (eds) Kierkegaard after MacIntyre (Peru IL: Carus Publishing), 75–112.Google Scholar
Evans, C. Stephen (2012) ‘Faith and reason in Kierkegaard's Concluding Unscientific Postscript’, in Anthony Furtak, Rick (ed.) Kierkegaard's ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide (New York: Cambridge University Press), 204–218.Google Scholar
Hartman, David (2003) ‘Prayer and religious consciousness: an analysis of Jewish prayer in the works of Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and Abraham Joshua Heschel’, Modern Judaism, 23, 105–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvi, Zeev (2002) ‘Leibowitz on the Abrahamic man, faith and nihilism’ (in Hebrew), in Hallamish, M., Kasher, H., & Silman, Y. (eds) Abraham Avi Hamaminim (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press), 247–352.Google Scholar
Kasher, Assa (1975) ‘Paradox–question mark’ (in Hebrew), Iyyun, 26, 236–42.Google Scholar
Kasher, Naomi (1977) ‘Leibowitz's conception of Judaism compared to Kant's conception of morality’ (in Hebrew), in Kasher, A. & Lewinger, Y. (eds) Sefer Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Tel-Aviv: Students Union of Tel-Aviv University), 21–34.Google Scholar
Marantz, Haim (1997) ‘Bearing witness: morality and religion in the thought of Yeshayahu Leibowitz’, Judaism, 46, 35–45.Google Scholar
Miron, Ronny (2007) ‘Yeshayahu Leibowitz on the possibility of religious subjectivity: critique and defense’, in Koch, Anne (ed.) Watchtower Religionswissenschaft: Standortbestimmungen im wissenschaftlichen Feld (Marburg: Diagonal-Verlag), 95–118.Google Scholar
Rudd, Anthony (2001) ‘Reason in ethics: MacIntyre and Kierkegaard’, in Davenport, John & Rudd, Anthony (eds) Kierkegaard after MacIntyre (Peru IL: Carus Publishing), 131–150.Google Scholar
Sagi, Avi (1989) ‘The test of the Aqueda – a comparative study in the thought of Leibowitz and Kierkegaard’ (in Hebrew), Daat, 23, 121–134.Google Scholar
Sagi, Avi (1997) ‘Yeshayahu Leibowitz – a breakthrough in Jewish philosophy: religion without metaphysics’, Religious Studies, 33, 203–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shashar, Michael (2002) Leibowitz – Heretic or Believer (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Keter).Google Scholar
Sigad, Ran (1977) ‘Leibowitz and Kierkegaard’ (in Hebrew), in Kasher, A. & Lewinger, Y. (eds) Sefer Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Tel-Aviv: Students Union of Tel-Aviv University), 42–46.Google Scholar
Shavid, Eliezer (2007) ‘Theocentricism and anthropocentrism: Leibowitz's relation to humanism’ (in Hebrew), in Ravitzki, A. (ed.) Between Conservatism and Radicalism (Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute and Hakibutz Hameuhad), 15–28.Google Scholar
Silman, Yochanan (1977) ‘Kantian motives in Leibowitz's thought’ (in Hebrew), in Kasher, A. & Lewinger, Y. (eds) Sefer Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Tel-Aviv: Students Union of Tel-Aviv University), 47–55.Google Scholar
Statman, Daniel (1995) ‘Leibowitz's concept of morals’ (in Hebrew), in Sagi, A. (ed.) Olamo Vehaguto shel Yeshayahu Leibowitz (Jerusalem: Keter), 326–343.Google Scholar