3 Jul 2012 (updated 3 Jul 2012 at 13:11 UTC)
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I'm translating 'Occidental Eschatology' (English translation done by David Ratmoko) into Chinese. Can't believe a 23-year-old wrote the book in 1947 in Zurich. I wonder how Jacob Taube had his 'irreparable' break with Gershom Scholem. What was that about? which reminds me to read Gershom Scholem's 'major trends in Jewish Mysticism' (1941).
If Western History is tragedy of Freedom as stated by young Jacob Taube, my impression is that civilization of the East is the tragedy of Family/Tribal conformism.
Taube stated 'The question is How does finite freedom, which is an element of time, relate to absolute freedom, an element of eternity? This relationship can be determined in theistic-transcendental, pantheistic-immanent, and atheistic-materialistic terms.' For my Gnostic inclination, how to determine/comprehend the essence of history through 'Latin, Greek, classic Chinese' terms or 'Arab, Hindi and Hebrew' terms?