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This volume presents the theory of culture of the Russian-born
German Jewish social philosopher David Koigen (1879-1933). Heir to
Hermann Cohen's neo-Kantian interpretation of Judaism, he
transforms the religion of reason into an ethical
Intimitatsreligion. He draws upon a great variety of intellectual
currents, among them, Max Scheler's philosophy of values, the
historical sociology of Max Weber, the sociology of religion of
Emile Durkheim, Ernst Troeltsch and Georg Simmel and American
pragmatism. Influenced by his personal experience of marginality in
German academia yet the same time unconstrained by the dictates of
the German Jewish discourse, Koigen shapes these theoretical
strands into an original argument which unfolds along two
trajectories: theodicy of culture and ethos. Distinguished from
ethics, ethos identifies the non-formal factors that foster a
group's sense of collective identity as it adapts to continuous
change. From a Jewish perspective, ethos is grounded in the
biblical covenant as the paradigm of a social contract and
corporate liability. Although the normative content of the
covenantal ethos is subject to gradual secularization, its
metaphysical and existential assumptions, Koigen argues, continue
to inform Jewish self-understanding. The concept of ethos
identifies the dialectic of tradition as it shapes Jewish religious
consciousness, and, in turn, is shaped by the evolving cultural and
axiological sensibilities. In consonance, Jewish identity cannot be
reduced to ethnicity or a purely secular culture. Urban develops
these fragmentary and inchoate theories into a sociology of
religious knowledge and suggests to read Koigen not just as a
Jewish sociologist but as the first sociologist of Judaism who
proposes to overcome the dogmatic anti-metaphysical stance of
European sociology.
Since the Enlightenment period, German-Jewish intellectuals have
been prominent voices in the multi-facetted discourse on the
reinterpretation of Jewish tradition in light of modern thinking.
Paul Mendes-Flohr, one of the towering figures of current
scholarship on German-Jewish intellectual history, has made
invaluable contributions to a better understanding of the
religious, cultural and political dimensions of these thinkers'
encounter with German and European culture, including the tension
between their loyalty to Judaism and the often competing claims of
non-Jewish society and culture. This volume assembles essays by
internationally acknowledged scholars in the field who intend to
honor Mendes-Flohr's work by portraying the abundance of religious,
philosophical, aesthetical and political aspects dominating the
thinking of those famous thinkers populating German Jewry's rich
and complex intellectual world in the modern period. It also
provides a fresh theoretical outlook on trends in Jewish
intellectual history, raising new questions concerning the
dialectics of assimilation. In addition to that, the volume sheds
light on thinkers and debates that hitherto have not been accorded
full scholarly attention.
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