Jacob Taubes (25 February 1923 – 21 March 1987) was a

sociologist of religion Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods (surveys, ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, and scholar of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

. Taubes was born into an old

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

nical family. He was married to the writer

Susan Taubes Susan Taubes (née Feldmann; 1928 – 6 November 1969) was a Hungarian-American writer and intellectual. Taubes was born in Budapest, Hungary, into a Jewish family. Her grandfather Mózes Feldmann (1860–1927) was the head of the Conservative or ...

. He obtained his doctorate in 1947 for a thesis on "Occidental

Eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

" and initially taught religious studies and

Jewish studies Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (e ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. From 1965 he was professor of Jewish studies and

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate ...

at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. He has influenced many contemporary thinkers such as

Giorgio Agamben Giorgio Agamben ( , ; born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception, form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein) and '' homo sacer''. The concept of biopolitics ...

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay " Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. He ...

, Avital Ronell,

Marshall Berman Marshall Howard Berman (November 23, 1940–September 11, 2013) was an American philosopher and Marxist humanist writer. He was a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at The City College of New York and at the Graduate Center of the Cit ...

, Babette Babich, Aleida and

Jan Assmann Jan Assmann (born Johann Christoph Assmann; born 7 July 1938) is a German Egyptologist. Life and works Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in Munich, Heidelberg, Paris, and Göttingen. In 1966–67, he was a fellow of the G ...

, Amos Funkenstein and

Peter Sloterdijk Peter Sloterdijk (; ; born 26 June 1947) is a German philosopher and cultural theorist. He is a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe. He co-hosted the German television show ''Im Glashaus: Das P ...

. Taubes' books include ''Occidental Eschatology'' tanford UP, 2009and ''The Political Theology of Paul'' tanford UP, 2004

References

* Babette Babich,
Ad Jacob Taubes
, Debra B. Bergoffen, Babich, and David B. Allison, eds., ''New Nietzsche Studies: Nietzsche and the Jews''. 7, 3 & 4, (Fall 2007/Winter 2008): v-x. * Joshua Robert Gold, "Jacob Taubes: 'Apocalypse From Below'", ''Telos'' 134 (Spring 2006): 140–56. * Lilla, Mark (17 April 2022)
"The Man Who Made Thinking Erotic"
(a review of ''Professor of Acocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes'' by Jerry Z. Muller),

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. Retrieved 11 June 2022. * Nitzan Lebovic, "Jacob Taubes: Looking into the Beauty of the Night", H-Judaic (Spring, 2011): www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=29694 * Jerry Z. Muller, "Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes"

Princeton University Press, 2022. 1923 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Austrian philosophers German Jewish theologians German sociologists Jewish philosophers Jewish sociologists Sociologists of religion Writers from Vienna Free University of Berlin faculty Historians of Jews and Judaism Columbia University faculty 20th-century Austrian historians German male non-fiction writers 20th-century male writers Political theologians Carl Schmitt scholars Austrian expatriates in the United States Austrian emigrants to Germany {{Germany-theologian-stub