Professional Documents
Culture Documents
June/Juin 1988
Maurice Friedman has done more than anyone else to make Martin
Buber accessible to the English-speaking world. His ambitious
three volume Martin Buber's Life and Work1 alone would have
guaranteed him that status; the many translations and commentaries
he has produced on Buber's work move the question beyond any
doubt.
While Friedman is clearly the most able and prolific commen
tator in English on Buber, he is also the most conservative. His
work on Buber is that of a true disciple. It is always clear that
Buber is the master, that he has shown us the way to truly authen
tic existence. Friedman is the defender of the faith against all
critics; of any interpreter of Buber, he is the one that is least
willing to find fault with Buber, and always seems most affronted
by any challenge to Buber's insights in philosophical anthropology.
This should not, however, be taken as a serious criticism of Fried
man. It is all too rare in philosophical circles to find someone that
is willing to make a stand with a system of thought, and who is
able to defend that system so competently. Nevertheless, one
94 COMPTES RENDUS
should be aware that Buber will always be given the benefit of the
doubt.
This latest work outlines various themes in Buber's philoso
phy which develop out of religious concerns. As Friedman points
out, it would be misleading to speak of Buber's philosophy of
religion, for strictly speaking he has none. Rather, he has a philo
sophical anthropology which touches on all areas of human exist
ence. For example, Buber's first expression of his mature philo
sophy, I and Thou, is not a book on religion, even though it is shot
through with religious implications. In the same way, it is not a
book on education, or politics, or sociology, or psychology, even
though it bears implications for each of these areas.
The book is divided into nine chapters, plus an appendix
which addresses Stanley Hopper's essay "Eclipse of God and
Existential Mistrust." Most of the chapters have appeared elsewhere,
as essays in journals or volumes on Buber. Friedman is quick to
tell us, though, that this is not simply a' collection of unrelated
papers. "It comes together in a gestalt" he says, "an integral state
ment of my understanding of Buber's philosophy of religion and its
implications for ethics, the history of religion, interreligious dia
logue, and religious education." (MBE1})
Friedman's purpose is to ask religious questions of Buber.
The first two chapters are an attempt to outline Buber's dialogical
thought in religious terms by describing dialogue itself, and also by
examining some specifically Biblical themes such as creation, red
emption, and the Messianic hope in (in his words) "existential"
terms. He goes from there to address a number of important
questions in the philosophy of religion: the relationship between
revelation and reason, the relationship between religion and ethics,
the nature of existential guilt and trust, the nature of the history of
religion, interreligious dialogue (Oriental, in particular), and reli
gious education.
In some ways the first short chapter is the most important of
the book. Its purpose is to turn this book into the unified state
ment Friedman hopes for, and this is accomplished by making the
BOOK REVIEWS 95
NOTES
1. Maurice Friedman, Martin Huber's Ufe and Work: The Early Years 1878-1923 (New
York: E. P. Dutton, 1982); The Middle Years 1923-1945 (New York: E. P. Dutton,
1983); The Later Years 1945-1965 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1984).
2. Theodor W. Adorno, The Jargon of Authenticity (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern
University Press, 1973), p. 16-17. Referred to in the text as "JA".
3. Friedman, "Martin Buber's Encounter With Mysticism" Human Inquiries: Review of
Existential Psychology and Psychiatry X (1970), 43-81.