ATHENS AND JERUSALEM

by Lev Shestov ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This volume represents the first attempt made to acquaint the American reader with the thought of Lev Shestov, the early-twentieth-century Russian Jewish religious philosopher whose importance was recognized (and whose influence was felt) by such disparate intellectuals as Albert Camus in France and D. H. Lawrence in England. Athens and Jerusalem is the quintessence of Shestov's beliefs: it is a call for men to turn away from the Athens of material values, of godless religion, of vain speculation, and it is an appeal to them to turn again to the Jerusalem of faith, of the Bible, of transcendental values. For Shestov, science, technology, rationalism--all the sacred cows of the twentiety century--are golden calves, to be destroyed before they lead humanity to the inevitable cataclysm reserved for those who adore the gods in place of the God. It is this anti-modern spirit, perhaps, which has kept Shestov in an obscurity that he little deserves, for his dialectical skill, his extraordinary literary ability, and his critical incisiveness of themselves seem to warrant him a place among the great and famous of our age. The present edition, even in Bernard Martin's polished translation, will hardly convince the general reader that his gods are those of Nineveh--or of the agora, for that matter; but it will serve to make available to scholars generally, and to those in the religious disciplines particularly, the thought of one of the modern world's most original and articulate thinkers.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION