Metaphysics of the Profane
Subtitle: The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem
By: Eric Jacobson
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2003-04-15
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Translated from: ger
Translation of: Metaphysik der Profanen: Die politische Theologie von Walter Benjamin und Gershom Scholem
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780231126571
Copyright date: 2003
Subjects: Jewish studies; Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -; Other prose: from c 1900 -; Western philosophy, from c 1900 -; Inter-war period, 1918-1939; Religion; Philosophy; German; History & Surveys - Modern; Judaism - General; Religion / Judaism / General; 1892-1940; 1897-; Benjamin, Walter,; Contributions in political the; Judaism; Judaism and politics; Language and languages; Messiah; Scholem, Gershom Gerhard,
Other titles: Metaphysik der Profanen
Description: Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem are regarded as two of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Together they produced a dynamic body of ideas that has had a lasting impact on the study of religion, philosophy, and literary criticism.

Drawing from Benjamin's and Scholem's ideas on messianism, language, and divine justice, this book traces the intellectual exchange through the early decades of the twentieth century—from Berlin, Bern, and Munich in the throws of war and revolution to Scholem's departure for Palestine in 1923. It begins with a close reading of Benjamin's early writings and a study of Scholem's theological politics, followed by an examination of Benjamin's proposals on language and the influence these ideas had on Scholem's scholarship on Jewish mysticism. From there the book turns to their ideas on divine justice—from Benjamin's critique of original sin and violence to Scholem's application of the categories to the prophets and Bolshevism. Metaphysics of the Profane is the first book to make this early period available to a wider audience, revealing the intricate structure of this early intellectual partnership on politics and theology.

(Source: [Columbia University Press](https://cup.columbia.edu/book/metaphysics-of-the-profane/9780231126571))
Table of contents: title: Preface
pagenum: xi; title: Introduction
pagenum: 1; title: Part I: Messianism; label: 1.
title: The Messianic Idea in Walter Benjamin’s Early Writings
pagenum: 19; title: The Messianic State: Does the Messiah Initiate or Consummate?
pagenum: 24; title: The Division of the Holy and Profane
pagenum: 31; title: The Messianic Intensity of Happiness
pagenum: 35; title: Tragic Devotion
pagenum: 38; title: The Worldly Restitution of Immortality
pagenum: 45; title: Nihilism
pagenum: 49; label: 2.
title: Gershom Scholem’s Theological Politics
pagenum: 52; title: Tradition and Anarchism
pagenum: 53; title: Zion: Anarchist Praxis or Metaphor?
pagenum: 56; title: A Programmatic Torah
pagenum: 61; title: Revolutionary Nihilism
pagenum: 63; title: Cataclysmic Anarchism
pagenum: 68; title: Critical Anarchism
pagenum: 76; title: Part II: On the Origins of Language and the True Names of Things; label: 3.
title: On the Origins of Language
pagenum: 85; title: Metaphor of the Divine
pagenum: 89; title: The Magic of the Inexpressible
pagenum: 93; title: Symbolic Revelation
pagenum: 99; title: Magic and the Divine Word
pagenum: 101; title: Reception As Translation
pagenum: 106; title: Misinterpreting the Sign
pagenum: 109; title: Judgment
pagenum: 111; title: Jewish Linguistic Theory and Christian Kabbalah
pagenum: 114; label: 4.
title: Gershom Scholem and the Name of God
pagenum: 123; title: Structure of Symbolic Mysticism
pagenum: 128; title: The Creating Word and Unpronounceable Name
pagenum: 131; title: Matter and Magic in the Torah and Its Letters
pagenum: 134; title: Grammarians of the Name
pagenum: 138; title: Microlinguistic Speculation
pagenum: 141; title: Metaphysics of the Divine Name
pagenum: 144; title: A Microlinguistic Science of Prophecy
pagenum: 147; title: A Messianic Conception of Language
pagenum: 151; title: Part III: Justice and Redemption; label: 5.
title: Prophetic Justice
pagenum: 157; title: On the Origins of Evil
pagenum: 157; title: Worldly and Divine Restitution
pagenum: 164; title: Theses on the Concept of Justice
pagenum: 174; title: The Justice of Prophecy
pagenum: 184; label: 6.
title: Judgment, Violence, and Redemption
pagenum: 193; title: Judaism and Revolution
pagenum: 193; title: Violence and the Politics of Pure Means
pagenum: 203; title: The Strike As Revolutionary Means
pagenum: 206; title: Punishment and Fate
pagenum: 209; title: Pacifism, Anarchism, and Violence
pagenum: 210; title: Violence and Myth
pagenum: 215; title: Divine Postponement, Judgment, and the Question of Violence
pagenum: 220; title: The Righteous, the Pious, the Scholar
pagenum: 224; title: Abbreviations
pagenum: 233; title: Notes
pagenum: 235; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 317; title: Index
pagenum: 331