Franz Rosenzweig (December 25, 1887 – December 10, 1929) was an influential Jewish theologian and philosopher.
Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany to a minimally observant Jewish family. His education was primarily secular, studying history and philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Munich, and Freiburg.
While researching his doctoral dissertation on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—entitled Hegel and the State—Rosenzweig reacted aga...
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Franz Rosenzweig (December 25, 1887 – December 10, 1929) was an influential Jewish theologian and philosopher.
Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany to a minimally observant Jewish family. His education was primarily secular, studying history and philosophy at the universities of Göttingen, Munich, and Freiburg.
While researching his doctoral dissertation on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel—entitled Hegel and the State—Rosenzweig reacted against Hegel's idealism and favoured a philosophy which did not begin with an abstract notion of the human. This philosophy has come to be known by several different names, including speech-thinking and existentialism.
Rosenzweig, under the influence of his close friend Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy considered conversion to Christianity. Determining to embrace the faith as the early Christians did, he resolved to first live as an observant Jew before becoming Christian. Famously, after attending Yom Kippur services at a small Orthodox synagogue in...
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