St. Matthew Passion

Hans Blumenberg (1920–1996) was one of the most important German philosophers of the twentieth century. Among his many books that have been translated into English are Paradigms for a Metaphorology and Rigorism of Truth.Helmut Müller-Sievers is Professor of German at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and author of several books, including The Science of Literature.Paul Fleming is the L. Sanford and Jo Mills Reis Professor of Humanities and the Taylor Family Director of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University. He is author of The Pleasures of Abandonment and Exemplarity and Mediocrity.

• 1. The HorizonPacing Off the HorizonThe One Author of the One StoryThe Beginning of WisdomRelief—or Even More?The Theological Generosity of the St. Matthew PassionSaving the 'Implied Listener' from Historical ReasonThe Metaphorical HorizonThe RansomThe LambAnd the Listening Never EndsAn Apostrophe Goethe Could Not UnderstandImagining Nietzsche Listening to the St. Matthew PassionListening to Rilke as He Listens to the St. Matthew PassionWittgenstein's Mother'Never Will This Child Be Crucified...'2. Escalations of a GodIf It Was This One, It Can Be No OtherAn Aesthetics of Creation: How It Justifies the Existence of the WorldGod Refuses to Be TransparentTime and Again: What Happened in Paradise?The Magnification of GodThe Work of the Patriarchs and the Work of MusicAbraham's Fear of God, Thought to the End: The Lamb, Not the Ram3. CorporealityThe Incarnation of the Word as an Offense to the AngelsCountermove: The Angel of the AnnunciationGod's Entanglement in the WorldSince When Am I? Since When Was This One?Why So Late?A Fulfilled Promise4. ApostatesThe Comic Element of Simon PeterThe Denial Becomes DefamationThe One Driven by Great ExpectationsWhen Someone Becomes Too Old to Reach for DominionVisit to a Stone That Almost Cried OutThe Realism of the Field of BloodThe Pieces of Silver5. Between Two MurderersJesus's Susceptibility to TemptationBarabbas and the Authentic Words of JesusThe 'Two Murderers' on Golgotha'He Calls for Elijah!'The Primal ScreamTheological Defense and Human RecoveryNo MartyrdomThe Last Word in the Passion of Saint JohnThe Witness of the Fourth Evangelist6. The Tears'We Sit Down in Tears...'Unto the Sealed TombTears of the Father, Only to Be ThoughtPaul WeepsThe Power of Tears over Omnipotence7. The Imperceptibility of the MessiahCaravaggio's EmmausTracesFrom the UnwrittenA Misinterpreted AgraphonThe Messianic: Prophet and SybilThe Risk of Still Waiting for the MessiahMessianic MinimalismThe Desperate Messianism of the Second RomeThe Sin That Cannot Be ForgivenRemembering Origen8. The Excesses of the Philosophers' God

Hans Blumenberg's St. Matthew Passion is a profound and passionate examination of the philosopher's central theme of Christian faith and the passion of the Son of God.(Zeitzeichen) The translators have managed beautifully the enormous shifts in Blumenberg's sometimes taxing prose; [they] offer readers both senses of "passion," suffering and enthusiasm, a kind of enlargement of humanity that parallels the still-unscrolling story Blumenberg tells.(Critical Inquiry) St. Matthew Passion stands as the deepest engagement with the Gospel narrative by a 20th century philosopher who is also a critic of religion. But its criticism lies not in conventionally-construed atheistic grounds (on which the narrative could easily be dismissed). Instead, it is a careful engagement of the texts in question that deserves careful consideration by anyone who cares about these texts.(Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion)