American theologians engage Martin Buber

What is it about?

American religious thinkers of the mid-twentieth century regularly included appreciative comments about Martin Buber’s thought in their books and essays, but they seldom stated specifically what they were drawing from Buber. Their comments did, however, tend to circle around a single issue: modern social, political, and technological changes were destabilizing both the sense of “the uniqueness of human selfhood” and the possibility of its distinctively “religious existence.” They sought a third way through the modern cultural and religious problem of the self, and they took Martin Buber as their guide.

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Why is it important?

Martin Buber exemplified the importance of dialogue for human understanding of self, society, and transcendence. His ideas captured the attention of his contemporary American thinkers, including Reinhold Niebuhr, Will Herberg, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Dialogue has been marginalized in our contemporary society, and Buber opens an avenue toward new appropriations of this crucial concept and social practice.