Two Types of Faith [Paperback]

Buber (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Scribner Paper Fiction (June 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020841809
• ISBN-13: 978-0020841807
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,953,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jewish Emunah and Christian Pistis, January 16, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: Two Types of Faith (Paperback)

Buber outlines here the difference between two kinds of faith the emunah of the Jews, and the pistis of the Christians. In doing so he also writes sympathetically about Jesus who he sees in some way as part of the spiritual history of Israel. For Buber the Jews faith is communal and centers on their persistence in history in continuing their communal religious life. He sees Christianity as having a different kind of faith one which focuses on individuals, and the individual salvation. In his concluding chapter he suggests that in the future each might take a bit more of the character of the other( not in doctrine) but in the Jewish faith becoming more pistis and the Christians moving more toward a communal faith. In the introduction to the work Buber thanks great Christian scholars with whom he was in dialogue, Rudolf Bultmann, Schweitzer, and Rudolf Otto. Clearly he was living and working toward Jewish- Christian dialogue as extension of his belief in the importance of meeting and making relationships with others in which the full humanity of both parties could be lived and expressed.

12 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Shift of Emphasis; Communal to Personal Faith, February 17, 2005

By 

Didaskalex "Eusebius Alexandrinus" (Kellia on Calvary, Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Two Types of Faith (Martin Buber Library) (Paperback)

Epilogue; Faith Vs Faith:

Emil Brunner who once said that Buber's discovery and analysis of the I-Thou relationship set up a Copernician revolution in the thinking of the whole of mankind, described Buber's 'faith versus faith' essay as; "An all-out attack on Christianity", and an attempt by Buber to clarify why he came short of becoming a Christian! (Dogmatic Theology, E. Brunner)

It may be that Buber glittering philosophic rhetoric, at once attracted and repelled, despite his literary talent, as his best analytical critic, Monsignor Oesterreicher described him, borrowing william James useful taxonomy, "Buber seemed 'tender minded' to one whose nature and philosophical nurture honor by preference 'tough minded' thinkers!

A shift Of emphasis:

It may be to my support for Amazon.com readership and the theologically trained Practical.Org review visitors, to recall a similar reaction to mine, by Thieme, a German theologian.

The late Karl Thieme joined Catholicism, leaving his Lutheran Church due to the latter adjustment to Nazi policy, excluding clergy of Jewish origins from its service. Thieme, rejecting the 'two types of faith' whimsical view, asserted that Christian's faith differed from Jewish faith by a 'Shift of emphasis.' He criticized Buber's reading of Paul's theology, encountering in his letter to the Romans 'A wrathful God' rather than 'A Loving Father.'

"I am saddened that Buber's aversion to Paul was so strong that he was unable to appreciate the Apostle's loving avowal of God's special bond to His people in Romans 9 to 11...I am at a loss to understand why Buber did not give Paul the regard that is his due.' comments Oesterreicher on Thieme parallel views.

Buber's faith Vs Torah:

In his exploration of the 'two forms' of faith, first as a member of community, whose covenant with the unconditioned, trusts in a person, vs. an individual converted to faith, in acceptance of a truth, associating with other converts to form a community.

While Hillel, the great rabbi, held his Golden rule of Jewish faith as; "The whole Torah, and, the rest is commentary," Buber writes, "I do not believe that revelation is ever a formulation of law. It is only through Man in his self-contradiction that revelation becomes legislation." Buber' Letter to Rosenzweig

The Risen Christ:

It is clear why the resurrection was such a stumbling block to Buber, that he took offense debating; "the Jew of Paul's time,...believed in the resurrection of the dead as a great community at the end of time; but the resurrection of an individual was unknown to the Jew from scripture..." Buber's conclusion against the core of Christian faith is : "The resurrection of an individual (Jesus) is incredible to Jews,"

Shmuel Bergmann, a great Jewish thinker, and a friend of Buber whom he asked to review the manuscript (Two Types of Faith), wrote in 1949; "If the resurrection (of Jesus) really happened, it was such a decisive event-the fact that a human being conquered death-such a new beginning in human history that Paul was right to attribute to faith in that fact a decisive significance."

Martin Buber:

One of the foremost religious thinkers of the twentieth century, M. Buber made a tremendous impact, not only on Jewish but also on Christian thinkers. Reinhold Niebuhr has described him as "the greatest Jewish philosopher of our time"

In nominating Buber for a Nobel Prize in literature in 1949, H. Hesse stated that, "He has enriched world-literature with a genuine treasure as has no other living author."