Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope

Towards the Future: Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope in 20th

Century Jewish Thought

Dr. Michael Gottsegen

E-mail: Michael_Gottsegen@brown.edu
Tel: 917-374-6614
Office: 163 George Street 2nd Floor
Office Hours: by appointment

Course: 20052 - JUDS 0980J - S01

Spring 2009
M: 4:00-6:20
Science Library 418

Course Description

This course will explore affinities between classical religious eschatology, the
secular idea of historical progress as it developed in the 19th century, and certain,
post-traditional, ideas of radical social transformation that emerged among
European Jewish thinkers in the first third of the 20th century, ideas which inspired
the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, and which still retain their critical power as
springs of secular hope, and as goads to socio-political activism. In the first section
of the course, we will intially explore the contours of classical (Jewish) Messianism
and eschatology in order to establish a foundation for our consideration of the
secularization of this orientation, as it came to be expressed in modern (mostly 19th
century) philosophies of history and social theory. In the second section of the
course, we will consider the tension between the retrospective understanding of
historical progress -- as the product of an ongoing, immanent and inexorable
process -- and the emergence of a radical, activist orientation toward historical
progress, which comes increasingly to be understood as a contingent desideratum
which can be produced only through a heroic leap of human action that might
summon or catalyze the power of the present moment and become that straight
gate through which alone redemption might dawn. With an eye to this tension, or
dialectic, we will consider, in turn, the thought of Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber,
Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Emmanuel
Levinas and Jacques Derrida, attending to the dialectic in their writings between
their own secular commitments and the religious sources and conceptions they
 Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope
2

draw upon as wellsprings of secular renewal. Finally, inasmuch as the narrative

trajectory of the course traces the transmutation of religious expectation into
secular hope, we will focus critically upon the nature of this transformation and
upon the questions it raises regarding the porous, and perhaps questionable,
demarcations between religious and secular orientations.

I. Course Expectations and Requirements:

It is essential that the readings be done before class in order to make an

effective discussion possible.

As a seminar, it is the responsibility of all participants to make class discussion

fruitful, and that will be possible only if everyone has completed the readings and
has thought about the issues they raise. The assignments are rather substantial, so
it is crucial that you budget your reading time accordingly.
Because this is a small seminar, students are required to attend every class.

Each student will give two oral presentations to the class. Specifically, the
presentation should:

1. Lead off with a ‘pressing question’ that the assigned reading raises for the
student. This question might be pressing for intellectual, but also existential
and political reasons.

2. Identify the particular location(s) in the text where this question emerges.

3. Provide a close reading of that limited portion of text. This close reading
should take the form of a line-by-line analysis of the selected text, and
include a suggested interpretation and explanation of the reasons that
portion of text raises the question it does. This interpretation may in turn
radiate out from that selection and touch on other parts of the assigned text,
but complete coverage is neither required nor requested.

4. Suggest further questions for discussion that may have arisen in the course
of dealing with the initial pressing question.

A sign up sheet will be posted for students to choose the weeks on which they give
presentations. The sign up sheet will be available immediately after the second
class. Some weeks there may be several students presenting.

There will be two types of written assignments.

1 A. All students will write four two-page “reaction” papers on the readings for
a particular week. These papers should be handed in at the beginning of class.
These papers are for weeks when you are not presenting.

2 B. Students are also expected to write a 20-25 page term paper. The term
paper may be on any topic bearing on the questions raised by the class. A short,
 Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope
3

one-page description of the paper and bibliography will be due April 14th and the
final papers will be due (by email) May 11th. Late papers will be downgraded one
letter grade per day, no exceptions.

Grading and summary of assignments: oral presentations: 15%; four reaction

papers: 25%; term paper: 40%; participation: 20%.

Plagiarism: Please familiarize yourselves with the university policy on plagiarism at

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/academic_code/code.ht
ml

Required Texts:

Russell Jacoby, Picture Imperfect

Martin Buber, On Judaism

Martin Buber, Paths in Utopia

Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia

Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope, vol 1

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations

Walter Benjamin, Reflections

Syllabus:

1. Introduction to the Utopian Problematic and Secular Messianism:

Richard Wolin, “Reflections on Jewish Secular Messianism” (WCT)

Russell Jacoby, Picture Imperfect (entire)

Karl Mannheim, “The Utopian Mentality,” [ch. 4] in Ideology and

Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. NY: Harvest
Books. [1929/1968]] (WCT)

Recommended: Habermas, Jürgen. 1989. “The New Obscurity: the

Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies”. In
Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope
4

The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians’ Debate,

Cambridge: The MIT Press, 48-70. (WCT)

2. Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), The Messianic Idea in Judaism, "Toward and

Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism," pp. 1-37; "The Crisis of
Tradition in Jewish Messianism," pp. 49-77; Scholem, On Jews and Judaism in
Crisis, "Reflections on Jewish Theology," pp. 284-289; Michael Lowy,
Redemption and Utopia, pp. 1-46. (WCT)

3. Philosophy of History and the Idea of Progress as Secularization of

Messianic/Eschatological Orientation. Karl Lowith, Meaning and History
[selections]; Lessing, The Education of the Human Race (1780); Hegel,
Reason in History: An Introduction to the Philosophy of History (1830-31)
(Parts III & IV) (WCT)

4. Early Marx, “1844 Manuscripts” (selections), “Introduction to the Critique of

Philosophy of Right,” “Theses on Feuerbach,” "On the Jewish Question" (WCT)

5. Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), “Introduction,” “Chapter VIII: The Discovery of

Man as Fellow Man” & “Chapter XIII: The Idea of the Messiah and Mankind")
from Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism (1919), pp. 1-23, 113-
143, 236-268 (WCT)

Recommended:
H. Cohen, "German Humanism and Jewish Messianism" (from Reason and
Hope)

6. Martin Buber (1878-1965), “Judaism and Mankind,” “Renewal of Judaism,”

“The Spirit of the Orient and Judaism,” “Jewish Religiosity,” and “Myth in
Judaism,” from On Judaism, pp. 22-108.

7. Gustav Landauer (1870-1919): “Anarchism in Germany,” “Destroying the

State by Socialism,” “For Socialism,” “Revolution of the Spirit” ; and Martin
Buber, Paths in Utopia (selections) (WCT)

8. Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), The Spirit of Utopia (1918), pp. 1-34, 165-279

Bloch, “Karl Marx, Death and the Apocalypse,” and “Man’s Increasing Entry
into Religious Mystery,” in Man on His Own (WCT)

Recommended: Bloch, The Principle of Hope (1954-1959), Vol 1, pp. 3-18

(Intro), 114-178 (ch. 15), 195-223, 223-249 (ch. 18) [optional]; Vol II: Part
Four, Chapter 36: “Freedom and Order: Survey of Social Utopias”, pages 471-
624; Vol III, pp. 1103-1182]
Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope
5

Dallmayr, Fred. “Bloch’s Principle of Hope,” in Margins of Political Discourse

(WCT)

9. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)

"Life of Students" (1914), "The Task of the Translator" (1921), "The Critique
of Violence" (1921), "Franz Kafka: On the tenth Anniversary of his Death" (in
Illuminations), "The Storyteller" (1936) "Zentralpark" (1938), "Paris, the
Capital of the Nineteenth Century," " Exchange with Theodor W. Adorno on
the Essay "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century,"" [check into next
two] A Different Utopian Will, The Significance of Beautiful Semblance,
Critique of Violence, "Theological-Political Fragment," "Theses on the
Philosophy of History" (1940); & Michael Löwy, “Revolution against progress:
Walter Benjamin’s romantic anarchism” and “Religion, utopia and counter-
modernity: the allegory of the angel of history in Walter Benjamin” in On
Changing the World. London: Humanities Press, 1993. “The Work of Art in the
Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”

10.Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and the Frankfurt School: "Something’s Missing,

A Conversation between Ernst Bloch and Theodor Adorno on the
Contradictions of Utopian Longing" (1964) [in Bloch, The Utopian Function of
Art and Literature, pp. 1-17]; Minima Moralia (1974) #153 ("...to contemplate
all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of
redemption...as indigent and distorted as it will appear one day in the
messianic light"); Aesthetic Theory (1970) (tba – but including: pp. 79, 108-
110, 122-123, 183, 184, 190, 192, 195, 196). (WCT)

Background Reading: Max Weber, (in Gerth and Mills)essays III, XIII re
religion and aesthetics] (WCT)

Richard Wolin, “Utopia, Mimesis, and Reconciliation, A Redemptive Critique of

Adorno's Aesthetic Theory,” Representations 1990 (WCT)

Recommended:
Max Weber, “XIII.6 The Esthetic Sphere,” in From Max Weber (ed. Gerth and
Mills), pp. 340-343
Herbert Marcuse, “The End of Utopia”
http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/60spubs/67endutopia/67EndUtopiaProb
Viol.htm

Martin Ludtke & Ted R. Weeks, “The Utopian Motif Is Suspended:

Conversation with Leo Lowenthal,” in New German Critique, No. 38, Special
Issue on the German-Jewish Controversy (Spring - Summer, 1986), pp. 105-
111
Gottsegen, Spring 2009, Secular Messianism and Utopian Hope
6

11.Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1994): On the Eschatological Now and the Utopia of

the Other Man (WCT)

Levinas, “The Time of Redemption and the Time of Justice” in Existence and
Existents
Levinas, Totality and Infinity, pp. 21-30, 194 - 247, 281-285.
“The State of Caesar and the State of David”

12.Jacques Derrida (1930-2004): On the Impossible Possibility (WCT)

Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx (1993): Exordium (pp. xvii-xx); chaps. 2

and 3 (pp. 49-94, 167-169
Derrida et al, “Marx & Sons,” in Ghostly Demarcations, pp. 248-262

Derrida Interview with Indy Media (2004) on Messianicity, Utopia, & Benjamin
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dghgx7gw_45f3f6kfgg

Supplemental:
Jacques Derrida, "Force of Law" (1989) in Drucilla Cornell, ed., Deconstruction
and the Possibility of Justice

Jacques Derrida, "The Mystical Foundations of Authority"

13.Course Retrospective: Secular Hope, Roots and Branches