Hegel and the Emergence of Zionism

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (02) ◽  
pp. 12-18
Author(s):  
Shlomo Avineri
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Striking Similarity ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Historical Tradition ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Jewish Intellectuals ◽  
Polish Intelligentsia

The connection between Hegelian thought and the emergence of modern Jewish nationalism – Zionism – appears, at first, to be far–fetched and slightly incongruous. Yet some aspects of Hegelian thought became attractive to many secularised, Jewish intellectuals in the 19th century in their quest for self-identity amidst the turmoil of enormous political and social upheavals. Some facets of this receptivity to Hegelian ideas, and especially their extension to the future dimension of history, bear striking similarity to the popularity of Hegelian notions among the Polish intelligentsia in roughly the same period (cf. Ryszard Panasiuk's ‘Hegel in Poland’, in the Spring-Summer 1982 issue of the Bulletin). The context is also similar: political impotence and the reinterpretation of a political historical tradition with overt religious connotations. The main issue facing Jewish thinkers in the post–1789 period was two-fold: the claim for integration, on the basis of equality, into a society based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, and the redefinition of Jewish identity in a mostly secularised world. Zionism appeared historically as one of the answers to this doutfle quest: it claimed that integration into the modern world should be on a collective – i.e. national – and not individual base; that this integration had to be based on auto-emancipation and self-determination, not on emancipation by others; and finally – and most fundamentally – that Jewish identity should be defined in terms of nationhood, not merely religious affiliation.

Setting the Stage: Jewish Identity in the Nineteenth Century and the Impact of the Dreyfus Affair

2007 ◽  
pp. 15-37
Author(s):  
Nadia Malinovich
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Ethnic Nationalism ◽  
Dreyfus Affair ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Jewish Intellectuals

This chapter provides a background on Jewish social and cultural history in the nineteenth century and describes the complex impact of the Dreyfus affair on French Jewry. It looks at the first generations of post-revolutionary Jewish intellectuals and communal leaders that had been primarily concerned with promoting Jewish integration and acculturation. It also recounts how the emergence of ethnic nationalism and the modern antisemitic movement forced French Jews to negotiate between a commitment to universalist Enlightenment principles and the racialized discourses of identity. The chapter investigates the explosion of the Dreyfus affair that openly questioned Franco-Judaism and confronted the complexity of Jewish identity in the modern world head-on. It looks at the antisemitism in France, the affair prompted more sympathetic attitude towards Jews in French leftist circles.

Religion and Toleration from the Enlightenment to the Post-Secular Era

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Forst
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter addresses the classical question of the relationship between enlightenment and religion. In doing so, the chapter compares Jürgen Habermas's thought to that of Pierre Bayle and Immanuel Kant. For, although Habermas undoubtedly stands in a tradition founded by Bayle and Kant, he develops a number of important orientations within this tradition and has changed his position in his recent work. The chapter studies this change to understand Habermas's position better. It also draws attention to a fundamental question raised by the modern world: what common ground can human reason establish in the practical and theoretical domain between human beings who are divided by profoundly different religious (including antireligious) views?

Heinrich Gross of Würtemberg: A Diplomat on Elizabeth Petrovna's Service

2021 ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Maksim Anisimov
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The 19Th Century

Heinrich Gross was a diplomat of the Empress of Russia Elizabeth Petrovna, a foreigner on the Russian service who held some of the most important diplomatic posts of her reign. As the head of Russian diplomatic missions in European countries, he was an immediate participant in the rupture of both Franco-Russian and Russo-Prussian diplomatic relations and witnessed the beginning of the Seven Years' War, while in the capital of Saxony, besieged by Prussian troops. After that H. Gross was one of the members of the collective leadership of the Russian Collegium of Foreign Affairs. So far there is only one biographic essay about him written in the 19th century. The aims of this article are threefold. Using both published foreign affairs-related documentation and diplomatic documents stored in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, it attempts to systematize the materials of the biography of this important participant in international events. It also seeks to assess his professional qualities and get valuable insight into his role both in the major events of European politics and in the implementation of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire in the mid-18th century. Moreover, the account of the diplomatic career of H. Gross presented in this essay aims to generate genuine interest among researchers in the personality and professional activities of one of the most brilliant Russian diplomats of the Enlightenment Era.

Orientalism in the Art Music of the Ionian Islands

2019 ◽  
pp. 296-317
Author(s):  
Kostas Kardamis
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Ionian Islands ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The 19Th Century

The Ionian Islands were at an early stage cut off from the Eastern Roman Empire, experienced the changes that came with the Renaissance, actively participated in the Enlightenment and were in contact with the multifarious ideologies of the 19th century. These factors transformed their art music, which followed the ‘western’ trends. In this context, ‘orientalism’ appeared as an additional creative element in certain indigenous composers’ works. Its use ranged from the stereotypical ‘western’ approach regarding the Orient to the employment of ‘oriental’ elements as media of political (especially during the struggles for the Islands’ annexation to the Greek Kingdom), national (as a conventional ‘Greek characteristic’) and social statements, and as a way for the works’ entrepreneurial promotion to a larger audience. The chapter discusses these changing—and often concurrent and diverging—attitudes through case studies; it stresses that ‘orientalism’ never became a compositional fixation for Ionian Islands composers.

but at the same time the self-identity of evangelicals contrasted sharply with the secular individualist self which has often been taken as the normative development of the Enlightenment. It remains to make a few observations linking this distinctive evangelical self-understanding to the appearance within evangelicalism of an active and vocal laity. The narrative identity of evangelicals expressed through stories of conversion was embraced by a wide spectrum of society, including women as well as men, laity as well as clergy, and all orders from the lowest to the highest in social rank. If we take into view contexts such as Sierra Leone at the end of the century, we can add that this narrative identity included people of different races as well. Conversion was a central emphasis within evangelicalism and the genre of conversion narrative is correspondingly and surprisingly broad in its sociological reach. One of the implications is that the concept of the laity within evangelicalism, under the impetus of conver-sionism, became something more like the apostle Paul’s use of the term laos to refer to the whole people of God, comprehending both clergy and non-clergy. In the eighteenth century this came into focus in certain debates about call to the ministry, ordination and what constituted a legitimate min-istry. As Jerald Brauer writes, ‘The moment one argues for the illegitimacy of a minister because he has not had a genuine conversion experience, one opens the possibility of ministry to any who have had such a conversion experience.’ Thus, the narrative identity of evangelicals, expressed through

2003 ◽  
pp. 96-98
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Conversion Narrative ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Normative Development ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Conversion Experience ◽  
The Moment

The Beginnings of a French Jewish Literature

2007 ◽  
pp. 38-56
Author(s):  
Nadia Malinovich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Prose Poem ◽  
War Poetry ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the tension between universalism and particularism as expressed in the pre-war poetry, novels, and essays of André Spire, Edmond Fleg, Henri Franck, and Jean-Richard Bloch. It examines the question of Jewish identity in the modern world through writers that paved the way for the much more widespread phenomenon of Jewish self-questioning in the post-war years. It also looks at André Spire's ground-breaking Poèmes juifs and Quelques Juifs that offered a scathing critique of both Jewish assimilation and French antisemitism. It discusses Henri Franck's prose poem La Danse devant l'arche, which describes a young man's quest for the meaning of life and reveals a similar tension between affirming the specificity of Jewish roots and embracing a larger French cultural heritage.

Edwards the Mentor

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhys S. Bezzant
Keyword(s):  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Cultural Engagement ◽  
Mentoring Relationship ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
The One

Among his many accolades, Jonathan Edwards was an effective mentor who trained many leaders for the church. Though his pastoral work is often overlooked, this book investigates the background, method, theological rationale, and legacy of his mentoring ministry. He does what mentors normally do—meeting with individuals to discuss ideas and grow in skills—but undertakes these activities in a distinctly modern or affective key. His correspondence is composed in an informal style, his understanding of friendship and conversation takes up the conventions of the great metropolitan cities of Europe of his day, his pedagogical commitments are surprisingly progressive, and his aspirations for those he mentors are bold and subversive. The practice of mentoring is presented in this book as the exchange between authority and agency, in which the more experienced person in the mentoring relationship empowers the one in the position of a learner, whose own character and competencies are nurtured. When Edwards explains his mentoring practice theologically, he expounds the theme of seeing God face to face, which recognizes that human beings learn through the example of friends as well as the exposition of propositions. The book is a case study in cultural engagement, for Edwards deliberately takes up certain features of the modern world in his mentoring and yet resists other pressures that the Enlightenment generated. If his world witnessed the philosophical evacuation of God from the created order, Edwards’s mentoring is designed to draw God back into an intimate connection with human experience.

Pyrite

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Basic Science ◽  
Sulfide Mineral ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Medieval Poetry ◽  
Literature History ◽  
The Many ◽  
The 19Th Century

Most people have heard of pyrite, the brassy yellow mineral sometimes known as fool's gold. Pyrite behaves like stone and shines like metal, and its dual nature makes it a source of both metals and sulfur. Despite being the most common sulfide mineral on the earth's surface, pyrite's bright crystals have attracted the attention of many different cultures, and its nearly identical visual appearance to gold has led to tales of fraud, trickery, and claims of alchemy. Pyrite occupies a unique place in human history: it became an integral part of mining culture in America during the 19th century, and it has a presence in ancient Sumerian texts, Greek philosophy, and medieval poetry, becoming a symbol for anything overvalued. In Pyrite, geochemist and author David Rickard blends basic science and historical narrative to describe the many unique ways pyrite is integral to our world. He explains the basic science of oxidation, showing us why the mineral looks like gold, and inspects death zones of present oceans where pyrite-related hydrogen sulfide destroys oxygen in the waters. Rickard analyzes pyrite's role in manufacturing sulfuric acid and discusses the significant appearance of the mineral in literature, history, and the development of societies. The mineral's influence extends from human evolution and culture, through science and industry, to our understanding of ancient, modern, and future earth environments. Energetic and accessible, Pyrite is the first book to show readers the history and science of a mineral that helped make the modern world.

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