Ronald Gregor Smith

Martin Buber

Today considered a landmark of twentieth-century intellectual history, I and Thou is also one of the most important books of Western theology. In it, Martin Buber, heavily influenced by the writings of Frederich Nietzsche, united the proto-Existentialists currents of modern German thought with the Judeo-Christian tradition, powerfully updating faith for modern times. Since its first appearance in German in 1923, this slender volume has become one of the epoch-making works of our time. Not only does it present the best thinking of one of the greatest Jewish minds in centuries, but has helped to mold approaches to reconciling God with the workings of the modern world and the consciousness of its inhabitants. This work is the centerpiece of Buber's groundbreaking philosophy. It lays out a view of the world in which human beings can enter into relationships using their innermost and whole being to form true partnerships. These deep forms of rapport contrast with those that spring from the Industrial Revolution, namely the common, but basically unethical, treatment of others as objects for our use and the incorrect view of the universe as merely the object of our senses, experiences. Buber goes on to demonstrate how these interhuman meetings are a reflection of the human meeting with God. For Buber, the essence of biblical religion consists in the fact that -- regardless of the infinite abyss between them -- a dialogue between man and God is possible. Ecumenical in its appeal, I and Thou nevertheless reflects the profound Talmudic tradition from which it has emerged. For Judaism, Buber's writings have been of revolutionary importance. No other writer has so shaken Judaism from parochialism and applied it so relevantly to the problems and concerns of contemporary men. On the other hand, the fundamentalist Protestant movement in this country has appropriated Buber's "I and Thou encounter" as the implicit basis of its doctrine of immediate faith-based salvation. In this light, Martin Buber has been viewed as the Jewish counterpart to Paul Tillich. This is the original English translation, available in America only in this hardcover edition of I and Thou. Martin Buber considered Ronald Smith's the best of the English translations and it was prepared in the author's presence. The more poetic rendering, this translation can be looked at as the King James Version of Buber's I and Thou.

I and Thou

Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann

This English edition of Begegnungen mit Dietrich Bonhoeffer varies somewhat from the German edition. The foreword by the German editor, Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann, has been replaced by this explanatory preface, by the foreword by Dr. Visser't Hooft, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and by a brief outline of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life. There is a slight abbreviation of Dr. Hammelsbeck's text, and the contributions by Ernst Wolf and Mrs. Bell have been replaced by two other pieces. These are the new essay by Professor Paul Lehmann of New York, which casts additional light upon Bonhoeffer's American visits, and the article by the late George Bell, then Bishop of Chichester. This recounts his meeting with Bonhoeffer in Sweden during the war. It is an important political statement, as well as the story of the last meeting between two friends. It first appeared in Bonhoeffer's Gesammelte Schriften, volume 1, in 1958, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the publisher, Kaiser Verlag of Munich. The intention behind these changes and additions is to make the story of Bonhoeffer's life more clearly available to many readers in the English-speaking world who wish to know more about this remarkable man. In a volume of this kind the contributions, from family, and friends, and former students, are bound to vary greatly in style and in the impression they make. No attempt has been made to make them uniform, or to remove contradictions or slight repetitions. The motley effect is true to life. This is not a biography, but the raw material for approaching a personality who was by no means simple. If the critical reader notices even a certain incipient hagiography in some of the contributions, he will also be able to correct one impression with the help of another. The subject of all the essays nevertheless appears clearly enough through them, as a man who would have laughed to be described as extraordinary, far less as saintly. A full biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is in course of preparation by his friend and heir, Eberhard Bethge. It will then be time for Bonhoeffer's contribution to contemporary thought to be fully assessed. Meantime, here is a collection of quite personal impressions and accounts which both illumine the person of Bonhoeffer and fill in the background against which he worked and suffered. - Preface.

Ronald Gregor Smith

About

Books

Join the club