Amir Engel. Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. xiv + 226 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-226-42863-5; ISBN 978-0-226-42877-2.Excerpt:
Reviewed by Jay Howard Geller (Case Western Reserve University)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2019)
Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Engel has written a fascinating study of this nearly incomparable modern Jewish thinker. He has excavated the implicit, making explicit the lines of connection between Scholem’s life and his work. Yet, it should be noted that many Scholem scholars will not regard the ties as clear as Engel does. Some will protest (and already have) that Scholem’s thinking either eludes such neat correlations or requires a holistic approach. Moreover, Engel’s mix of chronological and thematic ordering does not always work. ...I noted the publication of the book here. Follow the links there and see also here for other recent books about Scholem. And some other recent posts involving Scholem are here, here, and here.
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