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Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent
Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent
By Paul Mendes-Flohr
Published March 26, 2019
440 pages
“Exquisite” —Amir Eshel, Stanford University
The first major biography in English in over thirty years of the seminal modern Jewish thinker Martin Buber
An authority on the twentieth-century philosopher Martin Buber (1878–1965), Paul Mendes-Flohr offers the first major biography in English in thirty years of this seminal modern Jewish thinker. Organized around several key moments—such as his sudden abandonment by his mother when he was a child of three—Mendes-Flohr shows how this foundational trauma left an enduring mark on Buber’s inner life, attuning him to the fragility of human relations and the need to nurture them with what he would call a “dialogical attentiveness.”
Buber’s philosophical and theological writings, most famously I and Thou, made significant contributions to religious and Jewish thought, philosophical anthropology, biblical studies, political theory, and Zionism. In this accessible new biography, Mendes-Flohr situates Buber’s life and legacy in the intellectual and cultural life of German Jewry as well as in the broader European intellectual life of the first half of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Paul Mendes-Flohr is editor-in-chief of the twenty-two-volume German critical edition of the collected works of Martin Buber and the author of German Jews: A Dual Identity. He is professor emeritus of the Divinity School, the University of Chicago, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He lives in Jerusalem, Israel.
Author photograph © Alan Cohen
Reviews
“A scrupulously researched, perceptive biography of Buber that evinces an authoritative command of all the contexts through which Buber moved." —The New York Times Book Review
"Definitive." —Publishers Weekly
"This is now the authoritative work on Buber and the place that all students of Buber should begin." —Choice
"In Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, Paul Mendes-Flohr, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, traces the historical path that led Buber from Europe to Israel, and, throughout his engrossing narrative, tracks Buber’s intellectual journey, one that made him both a revered figure and a controversial one." —The Wall Street Journal
"Paul Mendes-Flohr’s excellent recent biography, Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent, brings coherence to the tangles of Buber’s life and thought, while never smoothing out the tensions that defined them." —Los Angeles Review of Books
"Deftly setting Buber’s philosophical and theological writings within the context of both European and German Jewish intellectual and cultural life in the early 20th century, Mendes-Flohr’s book is an excellent general introduction to the life and thought of one of the 20th century’s most important thinkers." —Jewish Review of Books
“Martin Buber was a great and hugely complicated man: philosopher, activist, he engaged throughout his career in a committed search for a modern Judaism that would remain in touch with the beauty, complexity, and tragedy of everyday life. Paul Mendes-Flohr's superb biography captures the depth and many-sidedness of Buber’s life and work. It is a great gift for all who already care about Buber, and for many who have yet to make his acquaintance.” —Martha C. Nussbaum, The University of Chicago
“This exquisite biography presents the best account to date of the life and work of one of the most distinguished modern Jewish thinkers and provides a panoramic view of the rich intellectual and cultural life of German Jewry.” —Amir Eshel, Stanford University
