The politics of immortality in Rosenzweig, Barth, and Goldberg : theology and resistance between 1914-1945

Highlighting the central importance of theological configurations of immortality and eternal life from 1914-1945, Mårten Björk explores the key writings of Franz Rosenzweig, Karl Barth, and Oskar Goldberg to situate their ideas in relation to the political turmoil of the period, including the rise of social Darwinism, nationalism and fascism. The conversations happening between Christian and Jewish theologians and philosophers on the nature of immortality and eternal life during the period constitute what Björk calls a ‘politics of immortality’ that was able to confront the politics of the nation state successfully. The speculative question of eternal life became a way to address the meaning of ‘a good life’ in a period when millions of lives were lost to war, camps and prisons. This book shows how the discussion on immortality is related to central political concepts and ideas of the era, revealing how the question of immortality pursued by Rosenzweig, Barth, and Goldberg became a way to resist the reduction of life to race, blood, and soil. By exposing the identification of life with material facts, and the break between life and death as insufficient, Björk makes important connections between political theology and philosophical posthumanism, situating the exact political consequences of theological and metaphysical theories of immortality and eternal life. "Highlighting the central importance of theological configurations of immortality and eternal life from 1914-1945, Mr̄ten Björk explores the key writings of Franz Rosenzweig, Karl Barth, and Oskar Goldberg to situate their ideas in relation to the political turmoil of the period, including the rise of social Darwinism, nationalism and fascism. The conversations happening between Christian and Jewish theologians and philosophers on the nature of immortality and eternal life during the period constitute what Björk calls a 'politics of immortality' that was able to confront the politics of the nation state successfully. The speculative question of eternal life became a way to address the meaning of 'a good life' in a period when millions of lives were lost to war, camps and prisons. This book shows how the discussion on immortality is related to central political concepts and ideas of the era, revealing how the question of immortality pursued by Rosenzweig, Barth, and Goldberg became a way to resist the reduction of life to race, blood, and soil. By exposing the identification of life with material facts, and the break between life and death as insufficient, Björk makes important connections between political theology and philosophical posthumanism, situating the exact political consequences of theological and metaphysical theories of immortality and eternal life."-- Provided by publisher Highlighting the central importance of theological configurations of immortality and eternal life from 1914-1945, Mårten Björk explores the key writings of Franz Rosenzweig, Karl Barth and Oskar Goldberg to situate their ideas in relation to the political turmoil of the period, including the rise of social Darwinism, nationalism and fascism. The conversations happening among Christian and Jewish theologians and philosophers on the nature of immortality and eternal life during the period constitute what Björk calls a 'politics of immortality'. The speculative question of eternal life became a way to address the meaning of 'a good life' in a period when millions of lives were lost to war, camps and prisons. This book shows how theology was related to central political concepts and ideas of the era, revealing how the question of immortality pursued by Rosenzweig, Barth and Goldberg became a way to resist the reduction of life to race, blood and soil. By situating the exact political consequences of theological and metaphysical theories of immortality and eternal life, Björk's discussion of Rosenzweig, Barth and Goldberg confronts the perennial question on the relation between life and death and exposes the important connections between political theology and philosophical posthumanism. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Yearning for a system: Franz Rosenzweig and the great paganism of life Chapter 2: Abundance and scarcity: Karl Barth and the struggle for existence Chapter 3: The animal of the infinite: Oskar Goldberg and the science of evil Chapter 4: Life outside life: Theology and resistance Notes Bibliography Index