'Messianic Humanism' – The Jewish Humanism of André Neher: André Neher in the Footsteps of Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel / 'הומניזם משיחי' – ההומניזם היהודי נוסח אנדרה נהר: אנדרה נהר בעקבות מרטין בובר ואברהם יהושע השל

• Published in: דעת: כתב-עת לפילוסופיה יהודית וקבלה 2017-01 (84), p.407-426
• Main Authors: בן-פזי, חנוך, Pazi, Ḥanoch Ben
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0334-2336

This essay attempts to identify the term "humanistic messianism," and as a result "messianic humanism," as foundational terms in the thought of André Neher. Neher's accomplishments as an educator and leader of French Jewry included wide-ranging critical studies of the Bible and all periods of Jewish thought, studies on the Maharal of Prague in the context of the intellectual milieu of the Renaissance, as well as his own original philosophical thought. Neher spoke out with a clear voice on the side of humanism, and against the anti-humanistic intellectual trends and cultural fads that were going on in Paris in the 1950s and 1960s. The essay will distinguish Neher as one of the three Jewish dialogic thinkers – Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and André Neher – who partnered a return to the Bible, dialogic thinking, and engagement with humanism. Out of an assortment of European traditions that combined humanistic and religious worldviews, Neher proposed a unique term that integrated Judaism and humanism by using the term "messianism." The composition of this term emerges out of Neher's ongoing involvement with the study of the Bible and the prophets, and as a humanistic gloss on the Maharal's thought. According to Neher, the principles of truth, tolerance, and universalism received a comprehensive reassessment and redefinition at the hands of the Maharal, all of which factored into the historical significance of the development of humanism during the Renaissance, and the transition to modern times. In so doing, the significance of this revolutionary philosophical project comes into view: the endowing of messianic significance to the ideas of humanism, and the creation of a humanistic interpretation of the messianic idea.