Speech, time and suffering: Rosenstock-Huessy’s Post-Goethean, Post-Christian sociology: pages: 179-204

Wayne Cristaudo

doi:10.2298/FID1501179C

Authors

Wayne Cristaudo School of Creative Arts and Humanities, Charles Darwin University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1501179C

Abstract

Abstract Five years ago, a new three volume edition of Eugen Rosenstock- Huessy (to translate) In the Cross of Reality: A Post-Goethean Sociology appeared in Germany. As with the two prior editions of the work (a one volume version in 1925, and a much revised and expanded two volume version 1956/8) it met with almost no critical response. This is perhaps not surprising - and it barely mentions any other sociologists, its approach is highly idiosyncratic, it is as much anthropology and history as it is sociology. Indeed, the second and third volumes mainly focus on the social formations of antiquity, and the role of Christianity and the messianic revolutions of the last millennium in creating a universal history. In this paper I take the relationship between speech, time and suffering as the key to Rosenstock-Huessy’s argument for why a theoretical grasp of Christianity as a social power is so important for social theory, and why he sees Sociology as a post-Christian form of knowledge. I also make the case for why Rosenstock-Huessy is an interesting and important social theorist. Keywords: names, tribes, empires, city-states, Israelites, Christianity, revolutions, post-Christian

References

Bushnell, Horace. 1864 „Work and Play“ in Work and Play or Literary Varieties, New York. Charles Scribner.
Carlyle. Thomas. 2002. The French Revolution: A History. New York. Modern Library.
Cristaudo. W, and Huessy, F. 2009. The Cross and The Star: The Post-Nietzschean Christian and Jewish Thought of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Franz Rosenzweig. Newcastle upon Tyne. Cambridge Scholars.
Cristaudo, W. 2012a. Religion, Redemption and Revolution: The New Speech Thinking of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Cristaudo, W. 2012 b. „Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/rosenstock-huessy/.
Huizinga Johan. 1944. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. London. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Rohrbach, W. 1973. Das Sprachdenken Eugen Rozenstock-Huessys: Historische Erörterung und systematische Explikation, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1956, Soziologie, Bd. 1, Die Übermacht der Räume, Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln, Mainz: W. Kohlhammer Verlag. 1958, Soziologie, Bd – Bd. 2, Die Vollzahl der Zeiten, Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer Verlag
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1965 [1920]. Die Hochzeit des Kriegs und der Revolution. Würzburg: Patmos-Verlag.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1966. The Christian Future. New York: Harper and Row.
Rosenstock-Huessy. E. 1970a. I am an Impure Thinker. Nowich, VT:Argo.
Rosenstock-Huessy. E. 1970b. Speech and Reality. Nowich, VT: Argo.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1981. The Origin of Speech, Introduced by Harold Stahmer, Norwich, Vt.; Argo.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1987 [1961]. Die Europäischen Revolutionen und der Charakter der Nationen. Moers: Brendow.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1991. Der Atem des Geistes. Moers. Brendow.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1992. „Hitler and Israel On Prayer“. Beiheft Stimmstein. Mössingen-Talheim. Talheimer.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 1993. Out of Revolution: Autobiography of Western Man. Providence, RI: Berg Publishers.
Rosenstock-Huessy. E. 2002. Die Gesetze der christlichen Zeitrechnung, (eds.) Rudolf Hermeier und Jochen Lübbers, Münster: Agenda.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 2008–2009. Im Kreuz der Wirklichkeit: Eine nachgoethische Soziologie, 3 vols., Mit einem Vorwort von Irene Scherer und einem Nachwort von Michael Gormann-Thelen, Edited by Michael Gormann-Thelen, Ruth Mautner and Lise van der Molen. Mössingen-Talheim: Talheimer.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. The Collected Works of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy on DVD. 2013. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. 2011. Judaism Despite Christianity: The 1916 Wartime Correspondence between Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Franz Rosenzweig. With a New Foreword by Paul Mendes-Flohr, a New Preface by Harold
Stahmer, and a New Chronology by Michael Gormann-Thelen. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Rosenzweig, F. 2005. The Star of Redemption. Translated by Barbara Galli. Madison, WI: University Wisconsin Press.
Stahmer, H. 1968. „Speak that I may See Thee“: The Relgious Significance of Language. New York. Macmillan.