A philosophical inquiry into Gershom Scholem's conception of messianism

What I try to present here is part of a wider PhD project I would like to dedicate to an analysis of Gershom Scholem’s work from the point of view of the history of philosophy. Here I would like to offer you some philosophical issues, which I think we can draw from Scholem’s investigation of messianism. As far as I think it is a very complex subject, and Scholem devoted himself to study this phenomenon at least starting from the early Twenties onwards, I will begin with discussing a methodological problem I think one has to face in dealing with Scholem from the perspective I have chosen. I will then continue by presenting the main lines of the debate between Scholem and Jacob Taubes, a debate that specifically regards their interpretation of Jewish messianism, and which I would like to investigate in a comparative perspective. Here I will use Taubes’ critiques just as a sort of instrument to summarize and clarify Scholem’s conception. Then, starting from Taubes’ notes, through the help of a hermeneutical analysis I wish to indicate in what part Taubes seems to me to be right and where instead I think his observations are not so significant and should be reconsidered. I think also Taubes’ comments on Scholem could lead us to interrogate about some Scholem’s philosophical insights, or in other words to ask the question of what philosophical and maybe political assumptions could have informed Scholem’s scholarship.