Athens & Jerusalem
Athens & Jerusalem
LEV SHESTOV
Translated, with an introduction, by Bernard Martin
SECOND EDITION
Edited, with a new introduction and annotations, by Ramona Fotiade
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
First edition © 1966 by Ohio University Press
Second edition © 2016 by Ohio University Press
New introduction © 2016 by Ramona Fotiade
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shestov, Lev, 1866–1938, author. | Martin, Bernard, 1928– translator, writer of introduction. | Fotiade, Ramona, editor, writer of introduction.
Title: Athens and Jerusalem / Lev Shestov ; translated, with an introduction, by Bernard Martin.
Other titles: Afiny i Ierusalim. English
Description: Second edition / edited, with a new introduction and annotations, by Ramona Fotiade. | Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016040552| ISBN 9780821422199 (hardback) | ISBN 9780821422205 (pb) | ISBN 9780821445617 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion—Philosophy. | Philosophy and religion. | BISAC: PHILOSOPHY / General. | PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Phenomenology. | PHILOSOPHY / Movements / General.
Classification: LCC BL51 .S52273 2016 | DDC 210—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016040552
To Nancy, Rachel, and Joseph Martin
Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis?
—Tertullian
Contents
Introduction to the Second Edition by Ramona Fotiade
Lev Shestov—The Thought from Outside
Prefatory Note by Bernard Martin
Introduction by Bernard Martin
The Life and Thought of Lev Shestov
Foreword by Lev Shestov
On the Sources of the Metaphysical Truths
III. On the Philosophy of the Middle Ages
IV. On the Second Dimension of Thought
Lev Shestov—Biographical Timeline
Bibliography: Lev Shestov’s Main Works and Translations into English, French, and German
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
Lev Shestov—The Thought from Outside
Ramona Fotiade
An influential forerunner of French Existentialism, best known for his unique blend of Russian religious philosophy and Nietzschean aphoristic thought, Lev Shestov (1866–1938) elaborated a radical critique of rational knowledge from the point of view of individual existence. His view of philosophy as “the most worthy” (τὸ τιμιώτατον) was inspired by Plotinus’s flight “beyond reason and knowledge” in order to grasp the meaning of life, free from the constraints of logical and ethical thinking, which pose death as the ultimate limit of temporal existence.
One of the precursors of the generation of Absurdist playwrights and essayists (most notably acknowledged in the works of Camus and Ionesco), Shestov fought against
