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28—Friday, July 22, 1966
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
'Death of God,' Nietzsche's Views,
Atheism Refutation Get Thorough
Accounting in 'Recent Philosophy'
Students of philosophic trends
will find the new study, "Recent
Philosophy—Hegel to the Present,"
by Etienne Gilson, Thomas Langan
and Armand A. Maurer indispensa-
ble to a full understanding of
developments in our immediate
age.
As an exploration of the West-
ern philosophic currents, evaluat-
ing the movements of - the past
150 years, this impressive work
fills an important need in review-
ing the teachings, attitude s,
criticisms of the best known
philosophers.
This work is especially valu-
able at this time when so much
has been heralded about the
"death of God," when the ex-
istence of man and belief in
the 'superior force are being
probed.
Thus we are treated to a dis-
cussion of Nietzsche's introduction
of the idea of "the death of God,"
how "against 'bourgeois' strains of
19th-century Christianity Nietzsche
was a terrible enemy."
The frustration of Zarathustra
- doctrines enter into the discus-
sion of the Nietzschean views.
Thus we have in the evaluative
philosophic work an analysis of
Zarathustra who, returning from
many years in the mountains, "is
amazed that the first person he
meets should 'be a saint after the
old manner." And to the old
hermit's query whether he brought
any gifts we have Zarathustra's
reply: "Let me rather hurry hence
lest I take aught away from thee "
And the analyst continues: And
thus they parted from One another,
the old man _ and Zarathustra,
laughing like schoolboys. When
Zarathustra was alone, however,
he said to his heart: 'Could it
be possible- This old saint in the
forest has not heard of it, that
God is dead'!"'
It is on this score that the
view of Nietzsche is presented,
outlining, the philosophy that
"scattered throughout Nietzsche's
works are pieces of the history,
not only of how Christendom came
to kill God, but of how 'God' came
to be in the first place."
Presented as part of a thesis on
"The Original Existentialist
Revolt," the authors continue to
present the following as part of
the Nietzschean attitude:
"Gods are born of the genius of
peoples. The wrathful, majestic
Jaweh of the Hebrew tribesmen
contrasts vividly with the frivolous
and often charming divine popu-
lation of the Greek Olympus. Al-
though Christian writers chided
them about the foibles, the play,
the very multiplicity of their gods,
the Greeks were content, as each
people has always been, to divinize
the qualities that made possible
the development of their own
greatness—their wiliness, a sense
of the gratuitous, the struggle of
Dionysiac creative power with
Apollonian sense of clarity and
balance. The God of the Jews on
the other hand appointed for Him-
self the prerogatives of a desert
chieftain—He ruled alone, pursu-
ing with terrible justice anyone
challenging His absolute position.
When the Roman government
brought unity to the Mediter-
ranean world, the God of the
desert, alas by them degraded
and transformed, extended to the
entire world His claim to rule
alone. The Greek gods, confronted
with the absurd claim of one God
to rule alone, 'simply laughed
themselves to death.'
"The New Testament is an ex-
pression of 'the Revolt of the
Jewish slave mentality' against
the Roman world of 'good taste.'
It is the product of an era quite
different from that of the Old
Testament, the very grandeur of
which gave a savor to the whole
enterprise. But Christianity is an
ugly deformation of it . . "
Such is the guidance that was
given by Nietzsche to those who
sought to denigrate the Scriptural
teachings and to propagate the
death of God idea.
But there is also the positive
view, in affirming "the existence
of ,God." The authors point out
that "in an idealist philosophy
like (Orestes) Brownson's, the
existence of God raises little
difficulty. Indeed, the ease with
which it enables him to refute
atheism was no small induce-
ment for him to adopt it. He
was from first to last a religious
philosopher, and the form estab-
lishment of God's existence was
one of his primary concerns."
In relation to Brownson's
philosophy, the authors proceed to
show that "Brownson insists that
the ideal formula, which is the
beginning of philosophy, is 'Being
creates existences,' not 'God
creates existences,' because at this
stage of the analysis being is not
yet seen to be identical with God."
It is further pointed out in ex-
plaining Brownson's rejection of
atheism:
"Once we are furnished with
the ideal intuition, 'the refutation
of atheism is possible without any
very long or intricate process of
metaphysical reasoning.' We do
not have to begin with principles
distinct from God in order to
establish his existence; all we
have to do is to show that the
human mind has an immediate
intuition of that which is God, and
that it could not operate or know
anything at all if it had not . . .
"To sum up: 'In what we know,
God is either apprehended or he
is not. If not, he cannot be con-
cluded; if he is, then he is ap-
prehended prior ,to the logical
process, and not obtained by it,
and all it can do is to clear up
and establish the fact that what
we do really apprehend is God'."
In view of the current debate
over the `!God is dead" asser-
tions, "R ecent Philosophy"
emerges as a most valuable
work for the present genera-
tion. It covers basic philosophic
thesis and fills a vast need in
viewing religious attitudes and
scores of elements in human
relations.
The authors are highly quali-
fied to cover this important era
in philosophy, "Hegel to the
Present." Etienne Gilson, a lead-
ing Catholic thinker, taught his-
tory and philosophy- at several
universities. Thomas Langan is
associate professor of philosophy
at the University of Indiana.
Armand A. Maurer is professor of
philosophy at the University of
Toronto.
Bonn Parliament's
Chief at WJC Parley
The World Jewish Congress
Plenary Assembly at Brussels will
feature a special session on "Ger-
mans and Jews" with participation
of Dr. EUGEN GERSTENMAIER,
(above), president of the Parlia-
ment of the German Federal Re
public. Other participants in the
seminar on Aug, 4 will be Prof.
Salo Baron, of New York, and
Prof. Gershon Sholem, of Jerusa-
lem.
Chaplain Wins
Battle of Bagel
VICENZA, Italy — To the ros-
ter of Jewish chaplains recruited,
endorsed and served by the Nat-
ional Jewish Welfare Board's Com-
mission on Jewish Chaplaincy
who have won the battle of the
bagel, the name of Chaplain Paul
Swerdlow must now be added.
As Jewish chaplain with the
U.S. Forward Support Group of
the Army Southern European
Task Force, Chaplain Swerdlow
fired the first salvo in the suc-
cessful campaign to satisfy the
gastronomic needs of himself and
the members of ,his Jewish mili-
tary congregation.
It all began back in April of
this year through the chaplain's
casual reference to his great long-
ing for a bagel during a conver-
sation with the European Ex-
change System bakery manager.
The- first sign of a breakthrough
came with the delivery of four
dozen bagels with cream cheese
for consumption at an Oneg Shab-
bat that month in Vicenza. How-
ever, the obstacle to total victory
lay in the fact, that bagels were
not a line item and therefore
could not be sold at the Post Ex-
change.
In consulatation with the friend-
ly European Exchange System
bakery manager, Chaplain Swerd-
low mapped a plan of action de-
signed to eliminate this barrier.
He enlisted his colleagues in a
letter-writing barrage for bagels.
Shortly thereafter the bakery man-
ager sent word that the bakery
in Fuerth was assigned the task
of making bagels.
Bagels are now listed on the
European Exchange System for
distribution in packages of eight.
Waldorf Has Arab Refugee Problem
NEW YORK—The Waldorf-As-
toria Hotel filed a motion in New
York State Supreme Court Mon-
day. for dismissal of a suit by a
Palestine refugee representative
who claimed that he had been un-
able to recover $69,000 of $70,000
he left in a safe in the hotel five
years ago.
According to the legal papers,
a man identified as Twafig Said
Touquan, purportedly representa-
tive of a "Palestine-Jordanian
refugee organization," checked in
at the hotel on Christmas Eve,
1960, and deposited the $70,000 in
the hotel safe deposit box.
In accordance with hotel pro-
cedures, he was given one key to
the box and the hotel retained
another. Both keys are needed to
open such boxes.
In the first week in January,
according to the suit by Tou-
quan, he withdrew $1,000. On
Jan. 18, he claimed, he sought
to withdraw the balance and
was told by the hotel that some-
one else had opened the box and
taken the $69,000.
Hotel officials said the hotel
assumed that if another individual
had a key, he had been given it
properly by the original recipient.
Touquan filed his summons and
complaint for recovery of the
$69,000 in January, 1961. Accord- .
ing to the hotel, he has taken no
action since.
A hotel spokesman said that the
statute of limitations for such suits
had expired in the Touquan case,
and the hotel wanted the case re-
moved from the legal books. John
Morris, attorney for the hotel, filed
the motion to dismiss the suit. His
motion was set for a hearing on
July 26.
.
Larry Freedman
Orchestra and Entertainment
647-2367
Sapir, Ben-Gurion Clash
Over German Fund Use
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Finance
Minister Pinhas Sapir denied Tues-
day in Parliament — after a verbal
clash with former Premier David
Ben-Gurion — that West German
funds provided this year to Israel
in the first credit agreement be-
tween the two countries, were
scheduled to be used for develop-
ment of the Negev.
West Germany granted Israel a
credit of $40,000,000 for 1966 in a
general agreement scheduled for
annual renegotiation.
The finance minister read aloud
from a protocol of a talk between
then West German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer and then Pre-
mier Ben-Gurion at a meeting in
the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New
York City in 1960, at which the
chancellor promised economic aid
to Israel. The protocol, prepared
by an Israeli interpreter present
at the talk, indicated that the
Negev was mentioned three times.•
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