Franz Rosenzweig : the other side of the West -- Dissimilation -- Hegel taken literally -- Utopia and redemption -- Walter Benjamin : the three models of history -- Metaphors of origin : ideas, names, stars -- The esthetic model -- The angel of history -- Gershem Scholem : the secret history -- The paradoxes of messianism -- Kafka, Freud, and the crisis of tradition -- Language and secularization.

Walter Benjamins Thesen über den Begriff der Geschichte (1940) enthalten das Projekt, durch die In-Dienst-Nahme der Theologie den Historischen Materialismus wieder zu einer Kraft zu machen, die es ohne weiteres mit jedem aufnehmen kann. Die hier vorliegende Arbeit zeichnet nach, wie Benjamin das messianische Modell der Erlösung dazu verwendet, deterministisch-positivistische Vorstellungen von geschichtlicher Zeit kritisch aufzulösen und sie durch ein Konzept von messianisch-revolutionärer Gegenwart zu ersetzen, in dem die Subjekte wirklich Herrn ihrer eigenen Geschichte sind.

Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto has become one of the world’s most influential political tracts since its original 1848 publication. Part of the Rethinking the Western Tradition series, this edition of the Manifesto features an extensive introduction by Jeffrey C. Isaac, and essays by Vladimir Tismaneanu, Steven Lukes, Saskia Sassen, and Stephen Eric Bronner, each well known for their writing on questions central to the Manifesto and the history of Marxism. These essays address the Manifesto's historical background, its impact on (...) the development of twentieth-century Communism, its strengths and weaknesses as a form of ethical critique, and its relevance in the post-1989, post-Cold War world. This edition also includes much ancillary material, including the many Prefaces published in the lifetimes of Marx and Engels, and Engels's "Principles of Communism.". (shrink)