Martin Buber
Yesterday was Martin Buber‘s birthday. He was born February 8, 1878 and became undoubtedly one of the most influential 20th century Jewish thinker, theologian, author educator. Before listing the 20 books we have written or edited by him (and the 9 books about him.) Let me quote from the introduction of Pamela Vermer‘s short biography of Buber:
He himself emphatically refused to accept that he was a philosopher at all… He similarly rejected the suggestion that he was a theologian… Was he a mystic? Many think so. He undeniably passed through a phase in which mysticism was deeply attractive to him… Another question which may reasonably be asked is whether Buber was basically a teacher. This would seem difficult to contradict. Yet he wished to make sure that his role was interpreted as that of a guide rather than an instructor. Was Buber then a biblical scholar? … Buber aimed primarily at an existential understanding of the text, and thought cold critical methods by themselves to be inadequate for such a task. … At least there can be no doubt that Buber was a Zionist. Can he have been a Hasid?
As you can see from the short excerpt above he was a complex character. But beyond reading about him, let me recommend his books themselves.
- A believing humanism: My testament, 1902-1965
- Between man and man
- Eclipse of God
- For the sake of Heaven
- Good and evil
- Hasidism and modern man
- I and thou
- Israel and the world; essays in a time of crisis
- The knowledge of man
- The legend of the Baal Shem (We have it as a book and as an audio tape.)
- Moses: The relevation and the covenant
- On Judaism
- On the Bible
- Origin and meaning of Hasidism
- Paths in Utopia
- The prophetic faith
- Tales of the Hasidim
- Ten rungs
- Two types of faith
- The way of response
Our books of/about Buber
- Vermes: Buber
- Brown: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Buber and Barth
- Friedman: A dialogue with Hasidic tales; hallowing the everyday
- Friedman: Martin Buber and the eternal
- Friedman: Martin Buber; the life of dialogue
- Herberg: The writings of Martin Buber
- Hodes: Martin Buber, an intimate portrait
- Rothschild: Jewish perspectives on Christianity
- Schaeder: The Hebrew humanism of Martin Buber
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