Description
Book SynopsisThroughout 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, presenting a comprehensive intellectual history of Gnosticism''s role in postwar German thought.
Establishing the German-Jewish philosopher Jacob Taubes at the nexus of the debate, Styfhals traces how such figures as Hans Blumenberg, Hans Jonas, Eric Voegelin, Odo Marquard, and Gershom Scholem contended with Gnosticism and its tenets on evil and divine absence as metaphorical detours to address issues of cultural crisis, nihilism, and the legitimacy of the modern world. These concerns, he argues, centered on the difficulty
Trade Review
No Spiritual Investment in the World is an extraordinary and seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is unreservedly recommended for college and university library Contemporary Philosophy collections and supplemental studies curriculum textbook lists.
* Midwest Book Review *
