Overview

Throughout 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 These concerns, he argues, centered on the difficulty of spiritual engagement in a world from which the divine has withdrawn. Reading Gnosticism against the backdrop of postwar German debates about secularization, political theology, and post-secularism, No Spiritual Investment in the World sheds new light on the historical contours of postwar German philosophy.

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9781501731006

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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 *

No Spiritual Investment in the World combines intellectual history and philosophy in its fascinating approach to notable thinkers in post-war Germany and their preoccupation with the Gnostic religious movement of late antiquity. Styfhals brings to light the significance, for their historical moment, of these thinkers' remarkably intense discussions on what might seem a remote subject. -- Daniel Weidner, Humboldt University Willem Styfhals offers a highly resourceful and brilliant analysis of a key concept by which modernity, secularization, history, society and politics were understood in post-war Germany. This is a book that has been much awaited. -- Yotam Hotam, Lecturer, the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, and author of <I>Modern Gnosis and Zionism</I>

Willem Styfhals offers a highly resourceful and brilliant analysis of the post-war German intellectual concepts, discourses and understandings. This is a book that has been much awaited. -- Yotam Hotam, Lecturer, the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, and author of <I>Modern Gnosis and Zionism</I>

Author Information

Willem Styfhals is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven.

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