I Respond Though I Shall Be Changed: Essays on the Thought of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Theologians ignore the work of German philosopher and sociologist Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973), despite his major contributions to Christian thought. In this volume, Peter J. Leithart shows why that neglect is a mistake, considering Rosenstock-Huessy's thoughts on the soul, time, the cross, and more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter J. Leithart is President of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, and Teacher at Trinity Presbyterian Church. He is author of a number of books, including Creator (IVP). He and his wife, Noel, have ten children and fifteen grandchildren.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK

"Dr. Peter J. Leithart's I Respond Though I Shall Be Changed: Essays on the Thought of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy is an invaluable collection of meditations upon a thinker who, if remembered at all, is mainly known for being Franz Rosenzweig’s teacher and interlocutor. Leithart’s book is a powerful reminder of why Rosenstock-Huessy is one of the most important thinkers for making sense of our time."

Wayne Cristaudo, author of Religion, Redemption and Revolution: The New Speech Thinking of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

"It will be a delight for devotees of Rosenstock-Huessy’s work to see Peter Leithart’s various writings on this profound and original thinker brought together in one volume. Topics central to Rosenstock-Huessy’s assertive texts on God, man, and the world––such as grammar, time and space, revolution, death, apocalypse, speech––are given enlightening treatment in this important new book.

"Rosenstock-Huessy’s output was so vast and varied, we can hardly expect a comprehensive assessment. Readers will thus welcome this singular approach to a slice of the whole, characterized prominently as an effort that integrates Rosenstock-Huessy’s expressly Christian writings with his work in which Christianity is only implicit. Rosenstock-Huessy would dismiss with contempt any supposed chasm between religion and the 'world.'

"In this spirit, Leithart favorably compares Rosenstock-Huessy’s original contributions to sociology, history, linguistics, theology, and so forth with the work of other writers far more widely known than he is––Norbert Elias, Jacques Derrida, Robert Jenson, Alain Badiou, et al. - comparative investigations that we are much in need of."

Norman Fiering, a historian of early American thought, was Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University for twenty-three years.