Constantin Brunner und das prophetische Judentum

Abstract

Constantin Brunner studied Judaism from a multitude of sources. The originality of his interpretation of Prophetic Judaism is based, however, on his philosophical concept of »spiritual thinking«, one of the three faculties of his »Fakultätenlehre«. True biblical prophets in the tradition of Moses should, according to Brunner, therefore be considered as »spiritual« geniuses. In his view, the Bible is a collective work of Jewish prophetism which includes Jesus as a late-born prophet. The three traditional monotheistic religions, on the other hand, are seen as more or less distorted versions of Prophetic Judaism. The article discusses Brunner’s approach to authentic biblical prophecy, based on words and acts of Jeremiah, Esaias, Amos and other prophets, focussing on the sources of their prophetic inspiration and on their role in the society of their time. Brunner argues that Prophetic Judaism could play an important role even today by challenging the values of our time.