xipreface
this book is about what it might be like to think about religion and politics to-
gether in a liberating rather than an oppressive way. it explores the topic primar-
ily through the lens of one thinker, the Jewish author Martin Buber (1878–1965).
Buber was born and raised in habsburg galicia and Vienna, and educated
in germany. he lived through world war i, the end of the Kaiser’s reign, the rise
and fall of the weimar republic, and five years of the nazi reich. in 1938 he fled
to palestine, which was itself in the midst of the arab revolt against the Zionists
and the British. There he witnessed the declaration of the state of israel and the
first decades of its existence. and throughout this whole period, he was writing.
so, this book is about the kingship of god. it is about anarchists and Zion-
ists, ancient israelites and modern israelis, german liberals and nazis. it is about
the conflict between Zionism and the palestinian struggle, and how one man
tried to reconcile the two. it is about how modern Jews have read and continue to
read the Bible for answers to their questions.
The book is intended to be read as one long story, but each chapter can stand
on its own for readers with a special interest in a particular topic. readers who
are primarily interested in anarchism and revolution should start with chapter 1.
readers interested in german politics and theology in the weimar era can turn
to chapter 2. Those concerned with Zionism, its conflict with the palestinians,
and the special role that Buber plays in arguments on these topics may skip to
chapter 7, although i hope they then go back to read the other chapters. Finally,
chapter 8 will be of most interest to readers who follow contemporary trends in
philosophy and political theory.
chapters 3–6 are the heart of the book. chapter 3 focuses intensely on Bu-
ber’s 1932 work Kingship of God, to lay out his idea of theopolitics as fully as pos-
sible. chapters 4–6 then show how the ideas of Kingship of God are elaborated in
Buber’s other, later biblical writings: Moses (chapter 4), The Anointed (t he u n fi n-
ished, still-untranslated sequel to Kingship of God, presented in chapter 5), and
The Prophetic Faith (chapter 6). These chapters are the living center that radiate
outward to the rest of the book, orienting everything from anarchism to Zionism.
caption for cover art
This work appeared on the frontispiece to the issue of Masken, the düsseldorf
theater journal, in which appeared Martin Buber’s eulogy “landauer und die
revolution.” signed by h. petermann (possibly hedwig petermann, a düsseldorf