Stranger in a Strange Land

Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem

Biography & Memoir, Philosophers, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Inspiration & Meditation, Mysticism, Judaism
Cover of the book Stranger in a Strange Land by George Prochnik, Other Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: George Prochnik ISBN: 9781590517772
Publisher: Other Press Publication: March 21, 2017
Imprint: Other Press Language: English
Author: George Prochnik
ISBN: 9781590517772
Publisher: Other Press
Publication: March 21, 2017
Imprint: Other Press
Language: English

Taking his lead from his subject, Gershom Scholem—the 20th century thinker who cracked open Jewish theology and history with a radical reading of Kabbalah—Prochnik combines biography and memoir to counter our contemporary political crisis with an original and urgent reimagining of the future of Israel.

In Stranger in a Strange Land, Prochnik revisits the life and work of Gershom Scholem, whose once prominent reputation, as a Freud-like interpreter of the inner world of the Cosmos, has been in eclipse in the United States. He vividly conjures Scholem’s upbringing in Berlin, and compellingly brings to life Scholem’s transformative friendship with Walter Benjamin, the critic and philosopher. In doing so, he reveals how Scholem’s frustration with the bourgeois ideology of Germany during the First World War led him to discover Judaism, Kabbalah, and finally Zionism, as potent counter-forces to Europe’s suicidal nationalism.
 
Prochnik’s own years in the Holy Land in the 1990s brings him to question the stereotypical intellectual and theological constructs of Jerusalem, and to rediscover the city as a physical place, rife with the unruliness and fecundity of nature. Prochnik ultimately suggests that a new form of ecological pluralism must now inherit the historically energizing role once played by Kabbalah and Zionism in Jewish thought.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Taking his lead from his subject, Gershom Scholem—the 20th century thinker who cracked open Jewish theology and history with a radical reading of Kabbalah—Prochnik combines biography and memoir to counter our contemporary political crisis with an original and urgent reimagining of the future of Israel.

In Stranger in a Strange Land, Prochnik revisits the life and work of Gershom Scholem, whose once prominent reputation, as a Freud-like interpreter of the inner world of the Cosmos, has been in eclipse in the United States. He vividly conjures Scholem’s upbringing in Berlin, and compellingly brings to life Scholem’s transformative friendship with Walter Benjamin, the critic and philosopher. In doing so, he reveals how Scholem’s frustration with the bourgeois ideology of Germany during the First World War led him to discover Judaism, Kabbalah, and finally Zionism, as potent counter-forces to Europe’s suicidal nationalism.
 
Prochnik’s own years in the Holy Land in the 1990s brings him to question the stereotypical intellectual and theological constructs of Jerusalem, and to rediscover the city as a physical place, rife with the unruliness and fecundity of nature. Prochnik ultimately suggests that a new form of ecological pluralism must now inherit the historically energizing role once played by Kabbalah and Zionism in Jewish thought.

More books from Other Press

Cover of the book Gender in Psychoanalytic Space by George Prochnik
Cover of the book History Beyond Trauma by George Prochnik
Cover of the book The Ladies Gallery by George Prochnik
Cover of the book Lying with the Dead by George Prochnik
Cover of the book The Impossible Exile by George Prochnik
Cover of the book The Reservoir by George Prochnik
Cover of the book What You Did Not Tell by George Prochnik
Cover of the book La Petite by George Prochnik
Cover of the book For Two Thousand Years by George Prochnik
Cover of the book The Bell of Treason by George Prochnik
Cover of the book All Aboard the Man-Train by George Prochnik
Cover of the book A Well-tempered Heart by George Prochnik
Cover of the book Emblems of the Passing World by George Prochnik
Cover of the book Submissive Twink Slave by George Prochnik
Cover of the book The Diamond Setter by George Prochnik
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy