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Buber's Way to "I and Thou": The Development of Martin Buber's Thought and His "Religion As Presence" Lectures

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This book is divided into two parts. The first consists in the lectures Buber gave preliminary to the writing of 'I' and ' Thou'. The second is Rivka Horowitz's attempt to understand the genesis of 'I' and 'Thou'. In this she considers Buber in relation to a number of thinkers, Hermann Cohen, Ferdinand Ebert, Franz Rosenzweig who may have influenced the development of the concept. She pretty much excludes Cohen's influence and points out the strong personal and philosophical differences between Buber and Cohen. The surprise element is her introduction and description of the thought of Ebert, a Catholic thinker who developed an idea very close to the 'I- Thou' idea just about the same time that Buber did. Perhaps the most moving description however is the story of the relationship between two great Jewish thinkers, Buber and Rosenzweig. They met Dec. 4 , 1921 after the publication of Rosenzweig's masterpiece 'The Star of Redemption'. Rosenszweig admired the work Buber was doing in the periodical 'Der Jude'. He invited him to teach in the 'Lehrhaus'. They subsequently embarked together on their great translation of 'Tannakh'. Horowitz however stresses the 'dialogic' relation between them. Buber as opposed to Ebert believed there were 'I-Thou' relations not only between Man and God, but also between humans. Horowitz tells the story of Buber's enormous patience and devotion in working with Rosenzweig on the translation while Rosenzweig was suffering from the ALS that he would eventually die from. She in effect speaks of this relationship as a conspicuous example of personal relationship, of treating the person as 'thou'.
The idea that the God of Judaism is a God we know in relationship, a God we address, a God we are always trying to approach is the heart of Buber's religious thought. This clearly written work enables us to better understand how after years of study of Hasidism Buber came to his most famous presentation of this idea.