Prayer as socialist praxis
Religion and recommitment for Hermann Cohen and the doubly marked martyrs of the November revolution in Germany
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6212792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Casey Aldridge (0000-0002-5478-204X, Florida State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 399-415 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Politics and Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1755-0491 • E-ISSN: 1755-0483 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1755048323000020 |
| OpenAlex | W4324148762 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
This paper explores German-Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen's challenge to materialist theories that anticipate capitalism's collapse and assert socialism's dependence upon self-interest. It places Cohen's religious socialism in conversation with a cohort of Jews who led and sacrificed their lives for the German revolution of 1918–1919. I argue that although self-interest and an insistence upon socialism's inevitability may motivate revolutionary action, it can also result in quietism. Through Cohen'sReligion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism, I show how Jewish prayer functions as a ritual practice of ethical recommitment to a cause that appears unrealizable. Cohen's notion of prayer as dialogical monologue—wherein the petitioner addresses a unique and, according to Cohen, silent God—allowed him to overcome doubt and self-interest. Beyond what Kant understood as prayer's socializing power, this paper uncovers the capacity of dialogical monologue to re-tether individuals to movements that cannot guarantee victory, yet which make ethical demands of us anyway
Art · Dialogical self · Epistemology · Fyodor · German · Judaism · Literature · Power (physics · Praxis · Prayer · Sociology · Theology · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Religious studies · Walter Benjamin Studies Compilation
Hermann Cohen and the Crisis of Liberalism
Living Law
Critical Philosophy of Hermann Cohen, The
Can Political Action Be Redemptive
Revolutions, wars and the Jewish and Christian contribution to redemptive cosmopolitanism in Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Between Hermann Cohen and Karl Marx
Hope, virtue, and the postulate of God
Rosa Luxemburg on disappointment and the politics of commitment
Rationality, Collective Action, and Karl Marx
The Time That Remains
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |