On Faith (review)

Abstract

On by Nathan RotenstreichAmong the many worthy contributions that Paul Mendes-Flohr has granted the area of Jewish scholarship is the presentation of texts that might have been overlooked. Hence his editing and preparing for posthumous publication of Nathan Rotenstreich's last philosophical work, On accords with Mendes-Flohr's years of dedication the field of Jewish Studies. Although Rotenstreich, who died in 1993 at the age of 79, was clearly a Jewish thinker of the stature of Martin Buber or Franz Rosenzweig, in his long career at Hebrew University he contributed philosophical thinking, including thinking on areas of Judaism. Hence Mendes-Flohr's editing of his last philosophical work might have added new and important insights that Rotenstreich did have a chance publish. Unfortunately, I would state that such is the case.On Faith only tangentially relates Judaism. It is an attempt clarify and present the essence of faith. As Rotenstreich puts it, he wishes to articulate and expose the particular attitude defining (p. 1). To do so, he isolates from cognition and from religion; he holds that is an attitude while religion is a structure or an institution. Thus, already in the first pages of this learned study we face a major problem. Is Rotenstreich's approach correct, is his defining as an attitude accurate? I believe that this approach is faulty. It certainly would be rejected by all those -- including the Hebrew prophets and Jesus -- who believed be a way of life and merely an attitude. I return this problem.What kind of attitude is faith? Rotenstreich relates faith and belief as an attitude of referring something that is perceived and cannot be perceived but still contains the element of assertion and credence (p. 6). When a person has he holds a position not based either on perception or on the syllogistic act of drawing logical conclusions (p. 7).What we see here, in these simple definitions, is that from the beginning Rotenstreich approaches using the Cartesian model with its subjective-objective attempt explain and elucidate human existence and the world. Indeed, these two citations could fit very well into the text of Discourse on Method. Note that Rotenstreich, who was very well read, was unaware of Martin Heidegger's description of Dasein as Being-in-the-world, a description which firmly rejects the Cartesian model. Nor was he unaware of Buber's important study on faith, Two Types of Faith, which also goes beyond the Cartesian model. Yet already in his first definitions of his topic, faith, he deliberately ignores the findings of these thinkers and reverts a Cartesian model. …