David Ohana - Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology

Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology is the first book to explore the impact of Friedrich Nietzsches work on the formation of Jewish political theology during the first half of the twentieth century. It maps the many ways in which early Jewish thinkers grappled with Nietzsches powerful ideas about politics, morality, and religion in the process of forging a new and modern Jewish culture. The book explores the stories of some of the most important Jewish thinkers who utilized Nietzsches writings in crafting the intellectual foundations of Jewish modern political theology. These figures political convictions ranged from orthodox conservatism to pacifist anarchism, and their attitude towards Nietzsches ideas varied from enthusiastic embrace to ambivalence and outright rejection. By bringing these diverse figures together, the book makes a convincing argument about Nietzsches importance for key figures of early Zionism and modern Jewish political thought.

The present study offers a new interpretation of a particular theological position which is called heretical religiosity. Only with modernity and, paradoxically, with rapid secularization, did one find heretical religiosity at full strength. Nietzsche enabled intellectual Jews to transform the foundation of their political existence.

It provides a new perspective on the adaptation of Nietzsches philosophy in the age of Jewish national politics, and at the same time is a case study in the intellectual history of the modern Jewry. This new reading on Nietzsches work is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in philosophy, Jewish history, and political theology.

David Ohana is a full professor of History at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Van Leer Institute, where he founded and directed the Forum for Mediterranean Cultures. His affiliations have included the Sorbonne, Harvard, Berkeley, and the cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

Series Editor: Oliver Leaman
University of Kentucky

Jewish Studies, which are interpreted to cover the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, culture, politics, philosophy, theology, religion, as they relate to Jewish affairs. The remit includes texts which have as their primary focus issues, ideas, personalities and events of relevance to Jews, Jewish life and the concepts which have characterized Jewish culture both in the past and today. The series is interested in receiving appropriate scripts or proposals.

For a full list of titles in the series: www.routledge.com/middleeaststudies/series/JEWISH

Religious Studies and Rabbinics

A Conversation

Edited by Elizabeth Shanks Alexander and Beth A. Berkowitz

Jewish Religious and Philosophical Ethics

Edited by Curtis Hutt, Halla Kim and Berel Dov Lerner

The Bible and the Holy Poor

From the Tanakh to Les Misrables

David Aberbach

Violence and Messianism

Jewish Philosophy and the Great Conflicts of the Twentieth Century

Petar Bojani

Ethical Monotheism

The Philosophy of Judaism

Ehud Benor

Nationalism, War and Jewish Education

From the Roman Empire to Modern Times

David Aberbach

Nietzsche and Jewish Political Theology

David Ohana

First published 2019

by Routledge

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2019 David Ohana

The right of David Ohana to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-1-138-36010-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-43331-3 (ebk)

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