I And Thou by Martin Buber Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I And Thou
Book Review: excrutiating
Summary: 1 Stars
There are two basic ways to interpret the story of the Fall of Man as it appears in Genesis. The first is that Man had an ideal relationship with God in the Garden of Eden, which he ruined by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The subsequent interplay between Man and God since then consists of an elaborate attempt to reestablish that original Edenic bliss. In this view, Man essentially makes himself worthy of God by returning to a passive, submissive role and yielding to God's will. The alternative understanding of the story is that when God created Man he withheld two things from him: knowledge/reason and eternal life. Having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, Man acquired the capacity to reason and develop knowledge. In order to make sure that Man did not also acquire the infinite lifespan in which to develop this knowledge, God banished him from the Garden. In this view, Man is in the process of becoming God. The subsequent relationship between Man and God consists of God putting obstacles in Man's way, like the multiplicicity of tongues as a result of the Tower of Babel, and man overcoming them.
The difference between these two views is stark and explains much of Western history. The first view is a more spiritual and inspirational view; it is grounded in the emotions and the inchoate yearnings of human beings to be comforted. It is a slave ideology, conveying the message that externalities are insignificant and what really matters is a personal relationship with God. It requires no action on the part of Man, merely submission. On the other hand, the second understanding is a call to action on the part of Man and a challenge to God. It is an aspirational view, grounded on the belief that Man is perfectable. It reflects the belief that through reason, increasing knowledge and expanding life spans, Man will one day be God's equal. In this context, Genesis is not a tragedy but a revolutionary manifesto.
All of which brings us to Martin Buber's I and Thou. We had to read this in Philosophy and Religion my Freshman year at Colgate and I found it excrutiating reading. Returning to it twenty years later has not helped. Stripped of all the obtuse language, repetition and other kerfluffle, Buber's point is this: humans are capable of two types of relationships, the I-It relationship is what we have with things or people whom we treat as objects. The I-Thou relationship is the type of mutual relationship we have with some people and which he thinks we should have with God. In the I-Thou relationship we recognize others as beings rather than things. (...)
Buber's concept of I and Thou, with it's emphasis on recognizing interrelations and dependencies and then immersing oneself in them, resembles Taoist or Buddhist ideas, but it also harkens back to the first reading of Man in the Garden of Eden above. The goal is to experience this kind of completely internalized relationship with God. It is, by and large, an attempt to comfort Man with the notion that it is in fact possible to enjoy such a relationship with mysterious spiritual forces which we can perceive in the world around us but which we can not understand through pure reason. It is static, passive and wholly inner directed.
If I understand him properly, which I doubt, the following analogy might help: think of Alexander Pope's image of the chain of being; in Buber's philosophy it suffices to recognize your place as a link in the chain and how you interlock with the other segments and that together you all form God's creation Through this realization, and acceptance of your role, you can then approach God. Simply being and accepting being is enough. It is this understanding of existence that has resulted in Buber being termed a religious existentialist.
Buber's theology though, like Existential philosophy, has been utterly rejected in Western culture and a good thing it is. Instead we, by and large, believe in the infinite perfectability of Man. We are not content to live out our existence as mere links in a chain; we believe that we can follow that chain to it's end and understand God's secrets, thereby becoming God ourselves. (...)It is easy to see how this activist, outer directed understanding of Man's role in the Universe has led to the ascendancy of Western Civilization. While other peoples, believing in a Buberesque sufficiency of their current existence, have dithered away their days in purely spiritual and contemplative pursuits, we in the West have been driven by the idea of Progress. Perhaps this is even the best term to oppose to Existentialism; our culture is, in nonpolitical terms, Progressive rather than Existential. We refuse to just be, choosing instead a process of becoming, always becoming, whether that means becoming more intelligent, longer lived, or whatever.
At any rate, the book is still just godawful--impenetrable prose joined to silly ideas--and whoever decided that eighteen year olds should start out their college educations by being required to read it should be flogged.
GRADE: F
Book Review: It's pure music
Summary: 5 Stars
Not only the book content is revolutionary, but the form. This book is a magnificent exemple of how Buber, through words, transcended them. He managed to put us face-to-face with universal pulsations of life and love. And you dont have to be an "intelectual" to be transformed by this living book, but the opposite. Just read Buber. Or better: listen to him and talk to him. It's pure music ( a message to the reader from Cambridge, MA : Mozart also wrote "too many notes...").Book Review: Theistic Personalism: the Classic Statement
Summary: 5 Stars
Buder's "I and Thou" proved to be years ahead of its time when written. Remarkably, it still is. It is the classic text for theistic personalism. Anyone who is embarking upon a spiritual path would be advised to read it. In an age when impersonalism in all its trendy forms permeates the religious universe of discourse, this small book might just save the spiritual seeker many years that would otherwise be squandered in pursuit of an illusory state of "liberation." The sole purpose of spiritual practice is to redirect one's yearning from frivolous material pursuits and distractions to the Divine Person --- to return home to Godhead. Walking the path is difficult; finding it beneath the accumulated rubble of impersonalist ideologies is an even more daunting task. With the help of Buber's insights, the honest God seeker will find it much easier. Having gotten a sense of direction, he has only to tune out the siren song of New-Age cant to avoid running aground on the shoals of Impersonalism. Justin ThackerBook Review: Rare beauty and touching spiritual insight
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1988 my life was completely transformed by this tiny book, and those effects continue today. Buber's powerful stance on human (and divine) relations is even more relevant and poignant today as we spend more and more time in enclosed rooms trying to communicate with strangers through machines. Buber understood human isolation so well and so eloquently mourned its harmful effects, proposing a far better way to live and relate to others.I hope that readers will take the time to digest what Buber has to say. As for which transation to read, I began with the Kaufmann, but soon found the older one by Ronald Gregor Smith to be more direct, less wordy, and much more beautifullly written. However, regardless of which translation you read, this book is truly a gem.
Book Review: A lot of gems among the roughage
Summary: 4 Stars
Often obtuse, with lengthy sentences and footnotes about the original German phrases. Still, as I stumble along, there are gems of poetry, for example "When a man loves a woman so that her life is present in his own, the You of her eyes allows him to gaze into a ray of the eternal You. " This book offers fundamental ideas about relationships, of I-It, and I-Thou. We reach a new level of awareness when we choose to approach the other as a Thou - as a relational being and not as an It. We don't find this by seeking an object, but by grace. This book is also about true dialogue (for example, Hendrix - Getting the Love You Want). Buber is worth the effort!