An Episode of Jewish Romanticism: Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption

Chapter 4 A Reading of The Star of Redemption through The Philosophy of Art

Introduction CHAPTER 4 A Reading of The Star ofRedemption through The Philosophy ofArt In Rosenzweig's commentary on the "Oldest System-Program of German Idealism," the author of which he takes to be Schelling, he staunchly maintains that we may no longer name Schelling "the Proteus of Idealism."l This epithet fell to Schelling because of the seeming inconsistency of shapes his philosophy took over the course ofhis long life. Rosenzweig's point is that if Schelling really is the author ofthe "Oldest System-Program," then the lifelong unfolding of his three greatest tasks-to construct natural philosophy , philosophy of art, and mythology-is already anticipated there.2 At the same time, the consensus among Rosenzweig scholars is that Schelling's late work, especially Ages of the World, profoundly influenced The Star ofRedemption.3 Rosenzweig himself asserts that his own Star need never have been written, except perhaps for a Jewish audience, ifAges ofthe World, which is only a fragment of a projected but never completed whole, had been finished ,4 and he additionally notes in the Star itself that "we are moving along the lines ofthe later philosophy ofSchelling" (SR 18). But if Rosenzweig's own Schelling scholarship is correct, and the later Schelling is of a piece with the earlier, then traces of early Schelling works, like The Philosophy ofArt, should show as well in The Star ofRedemption. 177 178 An Episode ofJewish Romanticism If by Rosenzweig's own admission, The Star ofRedemption descends most directly from the late Schelling, Ages ofthe World would surely provide the sharper lens for reading Rosenzweig's work. But part of what defines the late Schelling is the extent to which he had left behind the interconnected thought-worlds of romanticism and idealism; so that his late work, applied interpretively to the Star, will not directly uncover Rosenzweig's romantic leanings. Even so, of Schelling's early work, The Philosophy ofArt is hardly the most distinguished . It lacks the rigorously reasoned development of the slightly earlier System ofTranscendental Idealism, and its critiques of individual genres and works of art owe too much to the late eighteenth century, especially the Schlegels, to translate persuasively or engagingly into the late twentieth. For all that, in the philosophically and religiously climactic role the work assigns to art, it is undeniably romantic, and so may serve the romantic reading ofthe Star, and its forays into art criticism offer more scope than the System of Transcendental Idealism does, for interpreting the several pages of attention Rosenzweig lavishes on the theory of art, music, and poetry. Both The Philosophy ofArt and The Star ofRedemption are systematic works. Neither builds linearly, on a progression ofstatic syllogisms , but organically, on analogical movements and perceived correspondences between seemingly disparate things. It is tempting to relate the titles ofthe works analogously. Both titles are constructs of two nouns, the first in the nominative case, the second in the genitive, as appears more obviously in the German original. The temptation is to draw analogies between philosophy and the star, and between art and redemption. To succumb to temptation is not, in this case, any grave error. Art does function redemptively for Schelling. And the star does work for Rosenzweig somewhat the way philosophy does for Schelling. Rosenzweig presents the completed star as a figure he has "geometrically constructed" (SR 256). And construction is virtually synonomous with Schellingian philosophy. Philosophy, for Schelling, presents within its bounds the whole of the universe, as the star, for Rosenzweig, does the whole of reality. The star is of course a symbol, as Rosenzweig explicitly calls at least its inverted half (SR 256). It is even symbolic in Schelling's sense, for once the points on which it is built are understood, it shows itselfas just the movement ofmeetings that Rosenzweig has been discussing all along. Further, Schelling's philosophy and Rosenzweig's star are both mirrors in which the human sees itself, in the first case indifferently identified with God, and in the second, related to God across a genuine difference. It is across the difference between difference and indifference that the analogy breaks down. The inverted triangle within Rosen- A Reading ofThe Star ofRedemption 179 zweig's star symbolizes reality, which is simply the relations of creation , revelation, and redemption. The upright triangle, by contrast, builds on the points of the prereal, protocosmic elements, which can only be called ideal in a sense that...