Meetings: Autobiographical Fragments [Paperback]

Martin Buber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2002

Meetings sets forth the life of one of the twentieth-century's greatest spiritual philosophers in his own words. A glittering series of reflections and narratives, it seeks not to describe his life in its full entirety, but rather to convey some of his defining moments of uncertainty, revelation and meaning. Recalling the question on the infinity of space and time which nearly drove Buber to suicide at the age of fourteen, his adolescent 'seduction' by Nietzsche's work, his hero-worship of Ferdinand Lassalle and his love of Bach's music, Meetings has no equal as a portrait of an unique intellect in progress. Like Buber's great works Between Man and Man and The Way of Man, it evokes a tactile, earthly concept of meaning ultimately found, as Maurice Friedman writes in his introduction, 'not in conceptual or systematic thought but in the four-dimensional reality of events and meetings'.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'I only met Buber once, but I felt then that I was in the presence of greatness.' - T.S. Eliot

'Martin Buber is one of the creative minds of our age.' - Hans Urs von Balthasar

'This short book contains some remarkable apercus, including a passionate conversation with a distinguished thinker ...' - The Scientific and Medical Network

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (October 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415282675
• ISBN-13: 978-0415282673
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,928,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Turning point meetings in the life of the great Jewish thinker, February 7, 2012

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Meetings: Autobiographical Fragments (Hardcover)

The central concept of Buber's thought is the I- You encounter- that kind of personal meeting which has profound meaning in one's life. This small book edited by the prominent Buber scholar Maurice Friedman contains autobiographical encounters from various stages of Buber's life. Each of these meetings had great significance for him. The first meeting occurs when he is only four years old. At this age his parents divorced and he was left to live with his paternal grandparents. In this meeting with his mother he is accompanied by an older girl who he has been left in the care of. She tells him that his mother will go away ' forever' and never see him again. This opens to his mind the whole concept of a 'mis- meeting' of a meeting which has somehow has not worked out in the right way. This concept will be a part of his inner world for the rest of his life.

In the second meeting he writes of his encounter with his grandmother. She was a religious Jewish woman who read secular literature ordinarily prohibited to a religious girl. His grandmother's expressiveness and openness too make a major mark on his life. In other meetings in this work Buber will meet with his father, with the great Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, with the ideal religious figure of the Tzaddik , and others.

Each of the meetings will be described with a kind of poetic profundity which was Buber's natural manner and style.

This small work is invaluable in giving the reader a glimpse into the turning point moments in the life and thought of of a great and influential Jewish thinker.