The Early Frankfurt School and Religion

M. Kohlenbach, R. Geuss, M. Kohlenbach, R. Geuss

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9781403935571
• eBook ISBN: 9780230523593
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy

Are religions tissues of superstition and repression, or repositories of the highest hopes and aspirations of humanity, or perhaps both at the same time? For many of those thinkers who lived through the horrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth-century, this old question acquired a new urgency. This volume examines the ways in which the authors of the early Frankfurt School criticized, adopted and modified traditional forms of religious thought and practice. Focusing on the works of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Otto Kirchheimer and Franz Neumann, it analyzes the relevance of religious traditions and of the Enlightenment critique of religion for modern conceptions of emancipatory thought, art, law, and politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• The Early Frankfurt School and Religion
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and Translations
• Notes on the Contributors
• Introduction: The Frankfurt School and the Problem of Religion
• Part I Students, Theologians, Critical Theorists
• Part II Constructions of Religious Experience
• Part III Students, Theologians, Critical Theorists
• Part IV Students, Theologians, Critical Theorists
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index