Is the Human Being Redeemable? A Self-Defeating Question

Rosenzweig’s pathos with respect to an ultimate redemption raises the question of the desirability of a state in which so much has to be undone in order to retain nothing but the One, the All, the Eternal, and the True. Similar doubts arise concerning Rosenzweig’s portrayal of the ways that this state of redemption is anticipated in life: through prayer, love of neighbor, the communal hymn of the We. How accessible are these to “the human being” as such? Rather than arguing against what appears as a grand remnant of the urge for totality, I invoke here two figures whose concepts of redemption partly resemble Rosenzweig’s, but depart from him in ways that make all the difference: Benjamin and Kafka.

Gifts of Life

This chapter examines views and practices of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) regarding organ and tissue donation, which historically have evolved from a posture of ecclesiastical discouragement to a contemporary commendation. The ethics of organ and tissue donation can be situated within an LDS communal ethos of love of neighbor, altruism, and offering “gifts of life” as a morally and spiritually valuable action and a matter for individual agency rather than a state or ecclesiastical mandate. Communal practices surrounding organized blood donation, sacramental rituals of the offering of Christ’s body and blood for human salvation, and scriptural analogies of self-giving to others provide religious motivations for an organized culture of donation regarding organs and tissues.

Love of Neighbor During a Pandemic: Navigating the Competing Goods of Religious Gatherings and Physical Health

In light of the present pandemic, many religious communities have been asked to suspend their services and meetings. From the perspective of these communities, this comes at considerable cost to the spiritual good that these religious services bring about. Empirical evidence also indicates that the suspension of these services will have costs concerning physical and mental health as well. However, in the case of a pandemic, because it is an infectious disease that is the concern, love of neighbor arguably does entail the suspension of services for the sake of the preservation of life for others. Religious communities and individuals can, and have, found ways to partially offset the losses from not being able to meet. These have included increased personal and family prayer and devotion, video-streaming of services, and online prayer and discussion meetings. While none of these fully compensates for the loss of in-person meetings, the sacrifice entailed may itself be seen as a means to greater love of God and love of neighbor.

Between Apologetics, Emancipation and Imperial Paternalism

Scholarship on the abolition of the slave trade and slavery has given little attention to specifically theological factors behind the movement. This article seeks to interrogate three themes that underpinned the activism of the British abolitionists, namely, deliverance/liberty, love of neighbor, and imago Dei. These are examined, first, within their own biblical-theological frame of reference and, second, in relation to other intellectual currents of the era as well as, anachronistically, in the light of some key features of liberation theology. The article considers whether the British abolitionists, whose rhetoric oscillated around apologetics and emancipation and was marked by imperial paternalism, developed a form of proto-liberation theology.

Love at the right time. The recognition of others in Franz Rosenzweig

In this article we delve into the conception of love for neighbor present in The Star of Redemption. Rosenzweig?s New Thinking is in praise of life, despite pain, and by virtue of love. Becoming oneself passes through the relationship with the other. Love of neighbor is born from the recognition of the other as close and representative of all humanity. This love requires going beyond the ?-isms? that separate us; it involves getting closer to the other without denying him or her (or even oneself), but recognizing them as different. But how do we know who we should love at every moment? Prayer, Rosenzweig would say, is the one that enlightens our neighbors matured for love.