Willem Styfhals
Biographic Data
| ID | 1485931 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Willem Styfhals |
| GIVEN NAMES | Willem |
| FAMILY NAME | Styfhals |
| SIGNATURE | STYFHALS W |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
“Ma sosie”
This article presents an overview of the intellectual relationship between Susan Taubes, Susan Sontag and Jacob Taubes, exploring the erotic dimensions of their philosophical exchange. The article makes the case that their respective intellectual projects ultimately share the presupposition that thinking cannot be separated from friendship, affection, love, and sex. Their intellectual praxis in the early 1960s implies a deconstruction of this ver…
History of Error
Through a close reading of the opening pages of Occidental Eschatology , this paper analyzes how Jacob Taubes relied on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to understand the nature of eschatology. Taubes implemented Heidegger’s notions of truth, error, and history from his seminal essay “On the Essence of Truth,” (mis)interpreting the essay by ascribing an eschatological meaning to it. This surprisingly allowed him to find in Heidegger a model to come …
Predicting the Present
This article presents an analysis of the conception of prophecy that Gershom Scholem developed in his early essay “On Jonah and the Concept of Justice” (1919). I argue that Scholem did not so much develop a theological interpretation of the nature of prophecy but was rather concerned with the philosophical issues of time and justice. These concerns are demonstrably related to his friend Walter Benjamin’s interests in the late 1910s and early 1920…
No Spiritual Investment in the World
Genealogies of the Secular
Presents a historical and philosophical overview of the twentieth-century German debates on secularization and their significance for contemporary discussions about the relationship between theology and modernity.
No Spiritual Investment in the World
Throughout the twentieth century, German writers, philosophers, theologians, and historians turned to Gnosticism to make sense of the modern condition. While some saw this ancient Christian heresy as a way to rethink modernity, most German intellectuals questioned Gnosticism's return in a contemporary setting. In No Spiritual Investment in the World, Willem Styfhals explores the Gnostic worldview's enigmatic place in these discourses on modernity…
On Religious Nihilism
Secular and Religious Nihilism Nihilism is traditionally considered to be a secular and atheistic phenomenon. A deeply normative and rhetorical category, nihilism has a predominantly negative connotation and is used to reproach or invalidate certain political, philosophical, cultural, or ideological positions. The worldviews of secularism and atheism are often-recurring targets of such critiques. Accordingly, nihilism is assumed to be the result …
Modernity as Theodicy
Especially in the second part of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, Hans Blumenberg considered philosophical modernity through a reflection on theodicy. Theodicy even appeared here as constitutive for modernity, although this philosophical project of defending God against the existence of evil had been challenged several times in the past centuries. This role of theodicy in Legitimacy has been emphasized by Blumenberg's readers, particularly Odo M…
Deconstructing Orthodoxy
The story of the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and his disloyal student Jacob Taubes was one of continuing intellectual quarrel and personal enmity. Their intellectual disagreements centered on Jewish messianism, but the significance of this issue for Taubes’s and Scholem’s thought also reveals a deep intellectual affinity that both were unwilling to face. This article shows how Scholem and Taubes had a surprisingly similar…
Evil in History
Around the end of the 1940s, a number of German philosophers debated the connection between modernity and eschatology. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, eschatology is the theological doctrine concerned with the end of history and the salvation of human existence. This paper explains how the reference to the pre-modern phenomenon of eschatology can teach us something about the nature of secular modernity. In this respect, I elaborate on the works…
Deconstructing Orthodoxy
The story of the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and his disloyal student Jacob Taubes was one of continuing intellectual quarrel and personal enmity. Their intellectual disagreements centered on Jewish messianism, but the significance of this issue for Taubes’s and Scholem’s thought also reveals a deep intellectual affinity that both were unwilling to face. This article shows how Scholem and Taubes had a surprisingly similar…
Evil in History
Around the end of the 1940s, a number of German philosophers debated the connection between modernity and eschatology. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, eschatology is the theological doctrine concerned with the end of history and the salvation of human existence. This paper explains how the reference to the pre-modern phenomenon of eschatology can teach us something about the nature of secular modernity. In this respect, I elaborate on the works…
Deconstructing Orthodoxy
The story of the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem and his disloyal student Jacob Taubes was one of continuing intellectual quarrel and personal enmity. Their intellectual disagreements centered on Jewish messianism, but the significance of this issue for Taubes’s and Scholem’s thought also reveals a deep intellectual affinity that both were unwilling to face. This article shows how Scholem and Taubes had a surprisingly similar…
No Spiritual Investment in the World
Genealogies of the Secular
Presents a historical and philosophical overview of the twentieth-century German debates on secularization and their significance for contemporary discussions about the relationship between theology and modernity.
No Spiritual Investment in the World
Throughout the twentieth century, German writers, philosophers, theologians, and historians turned to Gnosticism to make sense of the modern condition. While some saw this ancient Christian heresy as a way to rethink modernity, most German intellectuals questioned Gnosticism's return in a contemporary setting. In No Spiritual Investment in the World, Willem Styfhals explores the Gnostic worldview's enigmatic place in these discourses on modernity…
On Religious Nihilism
Secular and Religious Nihilism Nihilism is traditionally considered to be a secular and atheistic phenomenon. A deeply normative and rhetorical category, nihilism has a predominantly negative connotation and is used to reproach or invalidate certain political, philosophical, cultural, or ideological positions. The worldviews of secularism and atheism are often-recurring targets of such critiques. Accordingly, nihilism is assumed to be the result …
Modernity as Theodicy
Especially in the second part of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, Hans Blumenberg considered philosophical modernity through a reflection on theodicy. Theodicy even appeared here as constitutive for modernity, although this philosophical project of defending God against the existence of evil had been challenged several times in the past centuries. This role of theodicy in Legitimacy has been emphasized by Blumenberg's readers, particularly Odo M…
Predicting the Present
This article presents an analysis of the conception of prophecy that Gershom Scholem developed in his early essay “On Jonah and the Concept of Justice” (1919). I argue that Scholem did not so much develop a theological interpretation of the nature of prophecy but was rather concerned with the philosophical issues of time and justice. These concerns are demonstrably related to his friend Walter Benjamin’s interests in the late 1910s and early 1920…
History of Error
Through a close reading of the opening pages of Occidental Eschatology , this paper analyzes how Jacob Taubes relied on Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to understand the nature of eschatology. Taubes implemented Heidegger’s notions of truth, error, and history from his seminal essay “On the Essence of Truth,” (mis)interpreting the essay by ascribing an eschatological meaning to it. This surprisingly allowed him to find in Heidegger a model to come …
“Ma sosie”
This article presents an overview of the intellectual relationship between Susan Taubes, Susan Sontag and Jacob Taubes, exploring the erotic dimensions of their philosophical exchange. The article makes the case that their respective intellectual projects ultimately share the presupposition that thinking cannot be separated from friendship, affection, love, and sex. Their intellectual praxis in the early 1960s implies a deconstruction of this ver…
Philosophy (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Theology (5 works) · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism (3 works) · Business (2 works) · Eschatology (2 works) · History (2 works) · Investment (military) (2 works)