The 2026 Franz Rosenzweig Academy, hosted by the Goethe Institut — Boston

Perhaps no question in contemporary ethics and political theory is more pressing at this moment than ours this summer: the nature of the nation-state, its legitimacy, and the roles, rights and obligations of its citizens. Hegel pioneered in this area, and Rosenzweig's treatment of it is still understood, more than 100 years later, as a "must-read" on the topic. Frederick Beiser, a leading authority on German Idealism, has praised the 2024 translation of Rosenzweig's Hegel und der Staat by father and son team Josiah and Jules Simon as "a major event in Hegel scholarship, and a major contribution to the study of Hegel in the English-speaking world."

To bridge the gap between what we supposedly know and what we need and/or want to know, many of us want or need an opportunity to put other things aside and come and learn together. In 1930, in a talk at the Hebrew University marking the passing of Franz Rosenzweig, Gershom Scholem remarked that Rosenzweig was “one of the most sublime manifestations of the greatness and religious genius of our people,” and [the world-renowned Hermann] Cohen’s spiritual heir,” notions that have been repeated since then countless times.

Who among us can explain, much less defend or critique, Scholem’s conviction here? With very few exceptions, Rosenzweig’s thought is unknown to us at a detail level, whether professors, rabbis, or even specialists in Jewish thought. And how, until recently, could it have been otherwise? Until just last year, Rosenzweig’s book on Hegel remained unavailable in English translation, and even in Germany, throughout most of the 20th century, the original text had been unjustly ignored (Beiser 2009, Honneth, 2024).

Furthermore, even some of his most important Jewish writings, e.g. “Bildung und kein Ende,” are still lacking in competent, unabridged translations, and the current translations of the Star of Redemption leave many readers cold and confused.
Finally, the intellectual traditions that inform Rosenzweig (e.g. the romanticism of Schelling, the idealism of Hegel and Cohen, and rabbinic Judaism itself) often appear obscure or inaccessible to us, more steeped as Anglophones are in Kant, the Anglo-American traditions of Hume and Locke, and the Protestant Bible.

Our moment holds a new promise, and it surely ought to motivate us. We now, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of a very few people, have more of the scholarly materials we need to assess the promise so often made that Rosenzweig and his corpus contain treasures: We now have competent translations of many, though not all of the key texts; and, despite some attrition, there are now, thanks to an influx of graduate programs and stipends in the 1980s, several generations of philosophically-engaged, rabbinically-literate scholars, a novum in the modern university, and their integration into the academy across the last 40 years means many allied colleagues to include and to draw on as well.

As stated above, the topic for the 2025 Summer Rosenzweig Academy derives its excitement and contemporary relevance from our political moment, a time when the nation-state system that emerged after WW II is suffering a legitimation crisis.  Any approach to Hegel and the State (1920) emerging out of the contemporary field of Jewish thought and philosophy, as does our own, will also face the question of the books relation to The Star of Redemption (1921), often read as Rosenzweig's own repudiation of an academic career in favor of the life of a Jewish educator. In addition, however, and as a means of focusing our discussion, we will shine a laser beam on Rosenzweig's methodological choices in trying to recover Hegel's concept of the state. How does what Rosenzweig calls "historical criticism" manifest his own philosophical position on matters treated by Hegel? How does his historical-critical stance on Hegel compare to what Hermann Cohen calls critical idealism? What is the difference between what Rosenzweig calls Tradition and what he calls Kritik? If these are meta-philosophical approaches to theorizing with the help of Hegel, what benefit can we readers today, interested in the future of self- and social-criticism, of theism and religious traditions, and in the nation-state legitimation crisis, gain from the substantial discussion that has grown up around Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre's historical way of doing philosophy, and especially around MacIntyre's category of Tradition as, in his view, the leading rival of Genealogy and Encyclopedia?

Franz Rosenzweig, Hegel and the State, translated by Josiah and Jules Simon, 2024, originally published in German in 1920; available today in paperback as Hegel und der Staat, Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010. A brief look is available here.

Axel Honneth, “Afterward,” in Hegel and the State, ibid;

Frederick Beiser, “The Puzzling Hegel Renaissance,” in The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, edited by Fred Beiser, 2009;

Robert, Pippin, Hegel’s Practical Philosophy: Rational Agency as Ethical Life, 2012,

Gershom Scholem, “Franz Rosenzweig and The Star of Redemption,” 1997 [1930] in On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in our Time, originally published in Hebrew as Devarim be-go, 1975, 407-425;

Franz Rosenzweig, "Introduction to the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen," translated by Robert Schine, in Moyn and Schine, Hermann Cohen, 2021

The Rosenzweig Academy will follow backwards design principles. We will do so as follows:

1. develop the problem area, in this case, the claim made suggestively—not in detail and not thoroughly—by Beiser and Honneth, that Rosenzweig’s interpretation of Hegel follows the pattern of a“critical idealist,” a figure who mediates admirably between left and right Hegelian reception-traditions and can account for Hegel’s metaphysical-theological commitments;

2. read curated sections of Hegel and the State, with recourse to the German original where helpful, in a collaborative attempt to validate or dismiss Rosenzweig’s thesis;

3. in a final meeting, we will explore the implications of our conclusion for the project of understanding Rosenzweig as the successor to Hermann Cohen as the preeminent modern Jewish theologian that he wanted to be; and given the salience of Zionism, liberal democracy and of late Christendom for Rosenzweig and for us, we will pay particular attention to how Rosenzweig, the Jewish thinker, positions himself vis-a-vis the animating political topic of the Hegel book.

Collaborative learning, as we will practice, aims to solve a problem or confront an issue of consequence in a field; it is facilitated with a gentle but firm hand by someone intimately familiar with the design and the stakes. Furthermore, the participants “buy into” this model as a condition of participating and play the crucial role of holding each other accountable; and finally, as Rosenzweig himself would have appreciated, there is time. We put in the time as it takes time, spent together, to cultivate the habits of collaborative learning and to reap its rewards.

For individuals with intermediate-German reading skills who want to take their ability to cope with Rosenzweig's subtle diction and long, complex syntax to the next level, this academy is uniquely suited to help.  For students with little or no German, this academy will introduce them to the essential literary and religious background for Rosenzweig's Hegel scholarship. While one group focuses on Rosenzweig's challenging German-language style, the other will be inducted into some of the more challenging cognate texts to the Hegel book.

Each day will include an introductory lecture, a 90 minute Prakticum in the language and cultural discourses key to understanding the Hegel book, social time on Newbury Street and/or on the Institute's terrace overlooking the Charles River, and an afternoon devoted to deepening our confrontation with the essential question of the course: how do we need to change our reception of Rosenzweig once we have integrated his authorship of the Hegel book.

By the end of the Academy, participants will have developed a considered view of the critical methods Rosenzweig employed as a highly successful Hegel biographer. Participants will be encouraged to record brief presentations on one of the following questions (or the like), depending on their interests: Is Rosenzweig, the biographer, a social critic? In the Hegel book, can a reader find a discernible view of the legitimacy of the nation-state in the author's voice? What is the relationship of Sittlichkeit to religion or to the Abrahamic traditions as Rosenzweig describes them in Hegel? Is Rosenzweig a worthy successor to Hermann Cohen and what does the Hegel book contribute to reaching a conclusion on this matter? In sum, participants will have the opportunity to develop their own fuller picture of Rosenzweig the philosopher, theologian, political theorist and/or Jewish intellectual.

Yes, generous merit-based financial aid awards available, designed especially for graduate students, rabbinical students, and recent graduates, including in exceptional cases, recent BA recipients. Work/Study is also available. To inquire about receiving a Work/Study Award, write info@36learningmatters.com and put Work/Study in the subject line.

In 2025 up to five Franz Rosenzweig Scholars will be named. Rosenzweig Scholars are graduate students in Jewish Studies (or the equivalent) who will receive a $500 credit toward the full tuition of $1000 and assistance with locating local home hospitality for the week they are in-residence at the Academy.

Up to five Rabbi Nehemiah Nobel Scholars will also be named. Nehemiah Nobel Scholars are clergy, usually rabbinical students, or recent graduates, who will receive a $300 credit toward the full tuition of $1000, and assistance with locating local home hospitality for the week they are in-residence at the Academy.

Up to five Professor Alasdair MacIntyre Scholars will also be named. Alasdair MacIntyre Scholars are faculty, graduate students, or fellow travelers, working in a Christian or ecumenical environment, who will receive a $300 credit toward the full tuition of $1000, and assistance with locating local home hospitality for the week they are in-residence at the Academy.