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Duncan Jones's avatar

It's always good to reflect on that other Paul that people pass over. Just finished David Biale's biography of Gershom Sholem and I'm thinking of his reference to the "anarchic breeze" that comes with Sabbatianism, disrupting and enlivening the Jewish tradition. Let the breathe of Jesus Messiah disrupt and enliven all life now.

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

I love Scholem. Is it a good biography?

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Duncan Jones's avatar

It's pretty good. Glad I read it. There's something wild, volatile about him that I didn't expect. The chapters on his time in Israel are fascinating. He's certainly out of step with mainstream Zionism.

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Adam Wilson's avatar

Your excavations help me in a way that no other writing I encounter does. Specifically, in contending with the utter irreconcilability of the Christian civilization into which I was born, you address the question, "How did it turn out this way? How did things run so far off the rails?"

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

Thanks so much Adam. I'm always fascinated by the "How did it turn out this way"? I want to think there is something comprehensible and human in the tragicomedy of where things go..

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W.D. James's avatar

I’ve been rereading Erich Fromm a bit recently. He wants to set Marx within the messianic tradition. He draws out the connect with the Hebrew prophets and Christian mystics. Do you think that is a legitimate take on Marx in terms of your understanding of messianism?

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

Helpful question, thank you. Yes i think so. Marx attempts to begin from the place of the oppressed and reaches toward a preudo-mythic vision of a future arighted, a this-worldly redemption: the classless society etc.. I'll add a few framing convictions. 1. I'm not inclined to create a hard definition of messianism in order to make these calls in any definitive way. Messianism is a constellation of energies, so somewhat subjective. 2. Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History is a fascinating exploration in the difference between a messianic image of Marxism against a kind of Marxism which has been absorbed into the progress myth. 3. I consider Progress, as an ideology, deeply un-messianic: the promethean innovation of better-ness through knowledge and power. Messianism tends to be an escape from these sorts of Babels. 4. Messianism does not necessrily mean good, for me. I consider Trumpism a messianic cult of sorts.

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W.D. James's avatar

Very helpful response. I need to check out some Benjamin

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W.D. James's avatar

Is Lowy’s analysis of the theses on history a good place to start?

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

Yes it's very helpful, but I'd recommend sitting with the thesis on its own terms for a good spell first. Lowys book has its leanings. Can you point me to what you read by Fromm?

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W.D. James's avatar

I’m just starting to get back into Fromm after not reading him for a decade or two. A good place to start historically is his long introduction to ‘Marx’s Concept of Man.’ The rest of the book is the first Western produced English translation of the Economic and Philosophic MSS. So, he was laying out his ‘humanist’ interpretation of Marx (and challenging the Soviet interpretation). I remember To Have or to Be as the most mystical with continual reference to Marx and Eckart

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

Thank you, very helpful 🙏🏻

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Duncan Jones's avatar

If you want the loam of it I'm more than happy to pass it on. Send me an email

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