Anti-Semitism and its Metaphysical Origins

This book articulates a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of Jew hatred as a metaphysical aspect of the human soul.

David Patterson (Author)

9781107040748, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 February 2015

334 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.62 kg

'Daring, brilliant, comprehensive, challenging, disturbing - those words describe David Patterson's magisterial interpretation of anti-Semitism. From now on, no attempts to understand and resist anti-Semitism will be sound unless they grapple with Patterson's provocative thesis: Anti-Semitism originates in humanity's craving to be rid of God and ethical obligation. That deadly temptation ultimately entails destruction of Jewish life and tradition, the most enduring and persistent sources that bear witness to the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the divine commandment against murder, and the injunction to love one's neighbor as oneself.' John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College

This book articulates a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of Jew hatred as a metaphysical aspect of the human soul. Proceeding from the Jewish thinking that the anti-Semites oppose, David Patterson argues that anti-Semitism arises from the most ancient of temptations, the temptation to be as God, and thus to flee from an absolute accountability to and for the other human being.

Introduction: anti-Semitism as deicide
1. Preliminary explanations
2. The arrogation of God: Christian theological anti-Semitism
3. Islamic jihadism: religious-fanatic anti-Semitism
4. The elimination of God: philosophical anti-Semitism in modern thought
5. National socialist anti-Semitism
6. Antihistorical anti-Semitism: Holocaust denial
7. Anti-Zionist anti-Semitism
8. Jewish Jew hatred
9. Sounding the depths of the anti-Semitic soul: Arthur Miller's Focus
Concluding reflection: the messianic side of the soul of Adam.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Sociology [JHB], Cultural studies [JFC], Theology [HRLB], Judaism [HRJ], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Religion: general [HRA], Philosophy [HP], The Holocaust [HBTZ1], Literature & literary studies [D]