Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Amir Engel
Guest: Daniel M. Herskowitz
Episode Title: Daniel M. Herskowitz, "The Judeo-Christian Thought of Franz Rosenzweig" (Liverpool UP, 2025)
Date: December 27, 2025

This episode delves deep into Daniel Herskowitz’s groundbreaking book The Judeo-Christian Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, exploring the complex and often misunderstood relationship between modern Jewish thought and Protestant theology. The conversation takes listeners through Rosenzweig’s intellectual context, how Protestant debates colored his work, the reception—and partial obscuration—of these influences, and the transformative implications for both Jewish and Christian intellectual histories.

Guest Introduction & Motivation

[02:13-03:40] Daniel Herskowitz introduces himself:

• Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University.
• Specializes in modern Jewish thought, European intellectual history, and German-Jewish thinkers like Franz Rosenzweig.
• His engagement with Rosenzweig stretches over 20 years, stemming back to his teenage years when he gravitated toward philosophical works for his “teenage rebellion.”
• Herskowitz’s previous book explored Martin Heidegger’s Jewish reception.

"I have been reading and thinking about Franz Rosenzweig for probably 20 or so years, since high school, really. That's when I was introduced to this thinker and it was because the way in which I conducted my teenager rebellion was by reading philosophy."
— Daniel Herskowitz [02:25]

Who was Franz Rosenzweig and Why is He Relevant?

[05:44-09:53]

• Rosenzweig is hailed as one of the great Jewish philosophers of the 20th century, among figures like Benjamin, Arendt, Scholem, and Buber.
• Central work: The Star of Redemption (1921), a densely layered and highly original book blending philosophy and theology.
  • Written during World War I as a soldier (initially on postcards from the front).
  • Creates a “star” diagram of reality: two triangles representing God, human, world and the connecting categories—creation, revelation, redemption.
• The text is famous for its thematic sprawl: poetry, opera, myth, Islam, architecture, ethics, etc.
• Rosenzweig’s vast correspondence is a vital entry point into his thought—his letters reveal his intellectual network and reading habits.

Key Argument: The Protestant Context as Interpretive Lens

[09:53-16:22]

• Herskowitz’s central thesis: much of Rosenzweig’s thought is best understood through the context of German Protestant theology debates of his era.
• The Star is not just "about Judaism," but profoundly embedded in—and responsive to—the dominant Protestant theological-discursive matrix.
• Rosenzweig not only participates in these debates, he integrates Judaism into Protestant theological frameworks, producing a truly "Judeo-Christian" thought.
• This background, Herskowitz argues, has been largely ignored or obscured in both Jewish and Christian scholarly receptions of Rosenzweig.

"...not that he develops a Jewish thought in this context, but rather that he fully embraces the Protestant theology of his time and integrates Judaism into it. And hence, I think the best way to think of his thought as it comes out in the Star of Redemption is as a Judeo Christian thought."
— Daniel Herskowitz [15:18]

The Centrality of Protestant Theology and Reception

[16:22-23:55]

• Many Jewish scholars have little familiarity with the details or significance of Protestant theology and its role in shaping German nationhood and culture.
• In Rosenzweig’s era, Protestant theologians were celebrity intellectuals, and theological ideas were central in broader culture.
• Herskowitz calls for intellectual historians to take theology seriously as a driver of historical and cultural change, arguing Jewish studies needs greater engagement with Christian and Protestant thought.
• The Christian layers in Rosenzweig were acknowledged by early readers but later readings have often downplayed or ignored them for various cultural, historical, and post-Holocaust reasons.

"It's high time that scholars of European Jewish thought come to appreciate the importance of understanding Christian theology... the de-theologization of the scholarship of intellectual history is a price we shouldn't pay."
— Daniel Herskowitz [18:46]

Key Concepts: Revelation and Temporality

The Historical and Theological Context of "Revelation"

[25:30-38:07]

• 19th-century historical consciousness (archaeology, philology, history) challenged traditional religion by making "historical truth" the benchmark.
• This led to a shrinking of the realm religion could claim as "true"—prompting Protestant theologians to emphasize "revelation" as a domain beyond historical critique.
• Revelation became understood as a dramatic, existential, individual, top-down event that historical reason or scholarship could not reach.
• The early 20th-century "dialectical" or "crisis" theology (e.g., Karl Barth) emerged as a rebellion against the previous generation’s alignment between Christianity, culture, and history.
• For this movement and Rosenzweig, revelation is disruptive and foundational—an existential event that shakes the individual and founds an entirely new orientation.

"This message is experienced through this revolutionary existential event of revelation. So it was this critique against the comfortable middle class exploitation of religion for the sake of politics and culture, and an urge to see revelation as coming from without... It changes everything."
— Daniel Herskowitz [36:45]

Rosenzweig’s System: Revelation and its Temporal Structure

[38:42-44:38]

• Temporality of Revelation: Rosenzweig makes revelation the decisive existential and theological "moment"—outside of regular historical time but absolutely transformative.
• Before revelation: the world is just “there”, unexamined and secular.
  After revelation: the world is seen as creation, oriented towards redemption, and ethical action becomes truly possible.
• Revelation Cannot Be Willed: It descends solely from God; humans can't induce it, but they can receive and respond.

"Revelation is like opening a curtain or taking off some kind of binds that we had. And everything emerges in this new light, and it emerges through its true light. The true nature of reality is exposed to us through this lens of revelation."
— Daniel Herskowitz [41:45]

"One doesn't... can't do anything to experience revelation... We can't generate it. We do have a role in receiving it and responding to it... Revelation is divine."
— Daniel Herskowitz [44:41]

Judeo-Christianity Explored

[45:44-54:16]

• Herskowitz’s argument is not simply that Rosenzweig was "influenced" by Protestant theology as an outsider, but that his thought is fundamentally Judeo-Christian—internally, structurally, and intention-wise.
• Rosenzweig positions Judaism and Christianity as two necessary, complementary agents in God's plan: each with unique missions, both responding to the same revelation, both indispensable.
• He writes from a perspective sometimes intentionally prior to or beyond the historical split between Judaism and Christianity.

"The argument in this book is more radical... the nature of his thought is Judeo Christian. In other words, that once we come to appreciate the fact that he is deeply and profoundly embedded in the Protestant theology of his time. Not as if it's external to him… But rather this is. He is deeply embedded in this discourse. This is how he thinks from the inside."
— Daniel Herskowitz [47:00]

• Previous scholars have often assumed whatever Rosenzweig says about Christianity is secondary, missing his parallel and co-equal treatment of Judaism and Christianity.

A Concrete Example: The Structure of Rosenzweig’s Revelation

[58:57-63:27]

• Rosenzweig’s dramatic scene of revelation—a dialogical back-and-forth between God and the soul—is best understood via contemporary Lutheran/Protestant models.
  • It takes the Lutheran structure: an intimate, private, momentary event characterized by God’s love, human shame, confession of sin, joy, and divine justification.
  • Rosenzweig animates these Protestant theological concepts, then “applies” them to both Judaism and Christianity concretely.

"When I would teach this to students... and they all read Rosenzweig's description of revelation. Said, this is Luther, right?... And indeed it is. But then what Rosenzweig does with it is he presents this very Protestant notion of revelation and then says, this is manifested concretely in both Judaism and Christianity."
— Daniel Herskowitz [62:15]

Implications for the Field

[16:22-18:46; 54:16-54:29]

• Herskowitz encourages integrating Christian theological literacy into Jewish studies, paralleling the expectation of Arabic/Islamic knowledge for medieval Jewish scholars.
• Argues that Rosenzweig should be canonized not only in Jewish thought but also in Christian intellectual history.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On theological background:
  "Intellectual historians would benefit greatly from knowing the theological discourse of the periods that they research, and that theology is important for understanding culture, understanding politics, and definitely understanding culture and politics of previous historical periods." [18:40]
• On the centrality of Revelation:
  "Revelation is this watershed moment that really opens up the past to the person who experienced revelation and opens up the future." [42:54]
• On Rosenzweig’s innovation:
  "He blurs and doubles down on their [Judaism and Christianity’s] differences at the same time." [53:42]

Herskowitz’s Next Project

[64:24-67:25]

• Moving from German Protestant to Catholic contexts, his current project analyzes the evolution of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s key document on the Church’s approach to non-Christian religions.
• Focuses on the complex political and theological forces shaping the text, viewing theology as grounded in its historical moment.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Guest introduction & intellectual history background – [02:13-05:15]
• Who is Rosenzweig? Why is The Star of Redemption important? – [05:44-09:53]
• Protestant theology as interpretive key – [09:53-16:22]
• On the importance of theological context for Jewish studies – [16:22-18:46]
• What is revelation in 19th/20th c. Protestantism? – [25:30-38:07]
• How Rosenzweig builds a system on revelation – [38:42-44:38]
• Discussion of Judeo-Christian categories – [45:44-54:16]
• Concrete example: the structure of revelation in The Star of Redemption – [58:57-63:27]
• Future research – [64:24-67:25]

Tone and Takeaways

The conversation is scholarly yet accessible, marked by Herskowitz’s precision and the host's probing, contextual questions. Herskowitz insists on returning to the original textual, intellectual, and cultural networks in which Rosenzweig wrote, and on treating Jewish and Christian categories as historically porous and deeply intertwined.

His call for a re-theologization of intellectual history, and a crossing of disciplinary and community-boundary lines, provides both a methodological and interpretive provocation for listeners working in religious, philosophical, and European intellectual studies.

Recommended For…

• Listeners interested in Jewish and Christian theology, modern intellectual history, or the dynamics of interfaith dialogue.
• Scholars seeking a roadmap for bridging disciplinary divides, or for reading canonical texts in richer, more context-sensitive ways.