An Episode of Jewish Romanticism

Book excerpt: Examining romanticism in the thought of Jewish philosopher, Franz Rosenzweig, this book compares his magnum opus, The Star of Redemption, with Leo Baeck's essay, "Romantic Religion," and Friedrich Schelling's Philosophy of Art, texts representing two distinct and, to a large extent, opposed interpretations of romanticism. Rosenzweig's thought was shaped by two intellectual histories: Germany's and Judaism's. Because romanticism had such a definite impact on modern German writing and thought, it becomes a question whether, and to what extent, Rosenzweig, too, was a romantic. Part of the force of the question derives from the tensions sometimes noted between Jewish and romantic worldviews. In this book, author Ernest Rubinstein shows The Star of Redemption to be along the spectrum of ideas that extends between Baeck and Schelling, and thus illustrates a qualified romanticism.