The Early Frankfurt School and Religion

Are religions tissues of superstition and repression, or repositories of the highest hopes and aspirations of humanity, or perhaps both at the same time? For many of those thinkers who lived through the horrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth-century, this old question acquired a new urgency. This volume examines the ways in which the authors of the early Frankfurt School criticized, adopted and modified traditional forms of religious thought and practice. Focusing on the works of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Otto Kirchheimer and Franz Neumann, it analyzes the relevance of religious traditions and of the Enlightenment critique of religion for modern conceptions of emancipatory thought, art, law, and politics. This Volume Examines The Ways In Which The Authors Of The Early Frankfurt School Criticised, Adopted And Modified Traditional Forms Of Religious Thought And Practice. Focusing On The Works Of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Otto Kirchheimer And Franz Neumann, It Analyses The Relevance Of Religious Traditions And The Enlightenment Critique Of Religion For Modern Conceptions Of Emancipatory Thought, Art, Law, And Politics.--jacket. Max Horkheimer's Supposed Religious Conversion : A Semantic Analysis / Pascal Eitler -- On The Usefulness And Uselessness Of Religious Illusions / Raymond Geuss -- Emerging Orders : The Contemporary Relevance Of Religion And Teaching In Walter Benjamin's Early Thought / Pierfrancesco Fiorato -- Religion, Experience, Politics : On Erich Unger And Walter Benjamin / Margarete Kohlenbach -- Allegory, Metonymy And Creatureliness : Walter Benjamin And The Religious Roots Of Modern Art / Barnaba Maj -- Law And Religion In Early Critical Theory / Chris Thornhill -- Jewish Law And Tradition In The Early Work Of Erich Fromm / David Groiser -- Critical Theory And The New Thinking : A Preliminary Approach / Howard Caygill -- Does Dialectic Of Enlightenment Rest On Religious Foundations? / Rüdiger Bittner -- Secularisation, Myth, Anti-semitism : Adorno And Horkheimer's Dialectic Of Enlightenment And Cassirer's Philosophy Of Symbolic Forms / Gérard Raulet. Edited By Margarete Kohlenbach And Raymond Geuss. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 190-233) And Index. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: The Frankfurt School and the Problem of Religion....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Max Horkheimer’s Supposed ‘Religious Conversion’: A Semantic Analysis....Pages 15-28 On the Usefulness and Uselessness of Religious Illusions....Pages 29-41 Front Matter....Pages 43-43 Emerging ‘Orders’: The Contemporary Relevance of Religion and Teaching in Walter Benjamin’s Early Thought....Pages 45-63 Religion, Experience, Politics: On Erich Unger and Walter Benjamin....Pages 64-84 Allegory, Metonymy and Creatureliness: Walter Benjamin and the Religious Roots of Modern Art....Pages 85-99 Front Matter....Pages 101-101 Law and Religion in Early Critical Theory....Pages 103-127 Jewish Law and Tradition in the Early Work of Erich Fromm....Pages 128-144 Critical Theory and the New Thinking: A Preliminary Approach....Pages 145-153 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 Does Dialectic of Enlightenment Rest on Religious Foundations?....Pages 157-170 Secularisation, Myth, Anti-Semitism: Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms....Pages 171-189 Back Matter....Pages 190-263 Are religions tissues of superstition and repression, or repositories of the highest hopes and aspirations of humanity, or perhaps both at the same time? For many of those thinkers who lived through the horrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, this old question acquired a new urgency. this volume examines the ways in which the authorsof the early Frankfurt School criticised, adopted and modified traditional forms of religious thought and practice. Focusing on the works of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Otto Kirchheimer and Franz Neumann, it analyses the relevance of religious traditions and of the Enlightenment critique of religion for modern conceptions of emancipatory thought, art, law, and politics In this collection of ten essays that come as a result of a working conference held at the University of Bielefeld in September 2003, contributors find the ways in which such early lights of the Frankfort School such as Adorno, Benjamin, Fromm, Horkheimer, Kirchheimer and Neumann rethought religion and its relationship with politics, law, art, and