Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-23T17:35:02.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revelation and Reason in Leo Strauss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Kim Sorensen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Revelation and reason are pivotal in Strauss's project. Yet nearly three decades after his death, questions remain about the essential meaning of this core dimension of his project. Scholarship of recent years has tended to approach his project by situating its position in relation to revelation and reason—to one or the other or to both. Among those who hold Strauss in high regard and inclusive of his former students, those often called Straussians, the view is far from clear. Was Strauss's allegiance with reason alone, that is, with Athens and classical political philosophy? Did his vocation as a political philosopher and his loyalty to the party of Athens preclude his being open to revelation, that is, open to the possibility that the Bible conveys truth regarding the good life? Or was he beyond a dogmatic attachment whether to reason or to revelation?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , Summer 2003 , pp. 383 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. In this essay, I focus upon tracking Strauss on revelation and reason and, to add to this largely interpretive goal, use the work of others who have engaged with this core dimension of his project. For a summary of the revelation-reason gulf and nexus, by a former student of Strauss's, see Jaffa, Harry V., “Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy,” in Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker, ed. Deutsch, Kenneth L. and Nicgorski, Walter (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994)Google Scholar. For extended discussions of the matter, see Green, Kenneth Hart, Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993)Google Scholar, and Orr, Susan, Jerusalem and Athens: Reason and Revelation in the Work of Leo Strauss (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995)Google Scholar. For a variety of essays and perspectives bearing on the revelation-reason question, see Novak, David, ed., Leo Strauss and Judaism: Jerusalem and Athens Critically Revisited (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996)Google Scholar.

2. In Strauss, Leo, Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity: Essays and Lectures in Modern Jewish Thought, ed. with intro. Green, Kenneth Hart (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997), p.453Google Scholar (whole work hereafter cited as JP)

3. Jaffa, , “Leo Strauss, the Bible and Political Philosophy,” p. 208Google Scholar.

4. On Jaffa's opposition to Bloom and to Pangle, see Orr, , Jerusalem and Athens, pp. 9–11Google Scholar, 160n24.

5. Though I agree overall with those single-author works cited in footnote 1, and particularly their conclusions that Strauss the political philosopher was open, not closed, to the possibility of revelation, this essay takes its own exegetical and interpretive path to that conclusion.

6. In Strauss, Leo, Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), pp. 147, 149Google Scholar (work hereafter cited as SPPP; above lecture hereafter cited as JA).

7. JA, p. 150Google Scholar.

8. JA, pp. 149, 150Google Scholar.

9. Cf. Orr, , Jerusalem and Athens, pp. 50–52Google Scholar. For Strauss's reference to Discourses, I.16Google Scholar, see JA, p. 150nl.

10. Machiavelli, Niccolò, Discourses on Livy, trans. Mansfield, Harvey C. and Tarcov, Nathan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 139 (emphases mine)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. JA, p. 150Google Scholar.

12. A Theologico-Political Treatise, in The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol. 1Google Scholar, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Tractatus Politicus, trans. Elwes, R. H. M. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1883), p. 91Google Scholar.

13. JA, p. 150Google Scholar. (I have changed “exept” to “except.”)

14. JA, p. 151Google Scholar. See also Strauss, Leo, Natural Right and History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953), pp. 81–82 (hereafter cited as NRH)Google Scholar; “Progress or Return? The Contemporary Crisis in Western Civilization,” in An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss, ed. Gildin, Hilail (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), p.282Google Scholar (work hereafter cited as IPP; this chapter hereafter cited as POR?); SPPP, pp. 137–38Google Scholar. Cf. 4 Mac.5:6–9, 16Google Scholar.

15. JA, p. 151Google Scholar.

16. JA, p. 165Google Scholar (in a footnote, p. 165n12, Strauss refers to Metaphysics 1072b14–30, 1074b15–1075all; De Anima 429a19–20; Nicomachean Ethics 1141a33–b2, U78bl–12; Eudemian Ethics 1249a14–15).

17. Metaphysics 1074b31–34, in The Complete Works of Aristotle, revised Oxford translation, vol. 2, ed. Barnes, Jonathan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 1698Google Scholar.

18. The City and Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964; Phoenix edition, 1978), p.34 (hereafter cited as CM)Google Scholar.

19. JA, pp. 165–66 (emphases mine)Google Scholar.

20. See CM, p.98Google Scholar; Leo Strauss On Plato's Symposium, ed. Benardete, Seth (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 6–8 (hereafter cited as LSPS)Google Scholar; “The Origins of Political Science and the Problem of Socrates: Six Public Lectures by Leo Strauss,” ed. Bolotin, David, Bruell, Christopher, Pangle, Thomas L., Interpretation 23, no.2 (1996), p.196 (hereafter cited as OPS)Google Scholar.

21. The Dialogues of Plato, 4th ed., rev., vol. 2, trans. Jowett, B. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), pp. 223, 224, 225Google Scholar.

22. JA, p.166Google Scholar. On Strauss's apparent preference for Plato over Aristotle, see McCoy, Charles N. R., “On the Revival of Classical Political Philosophy” in On the Intelligibility of Political Philosophy: Essays of Charles N. R. McCoy, ed. Schall, James V. and Schrems, John J. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

23. JA, p. 166n13.

24. The Dialogues of Plato, 4th ed., rev., vol. 4, trans. Jowett, B. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), p.476Google Scholar.

25. Ps.139:7–10, Amos 9:1Google Scholar, New International Version of the Holy Bible (East Brunswick, NJ: International Bible Society, 1984), pp. 760, 1161 (hereafter cited as NIV)Google Scholar.

26. On this theology, cf. Strauss, Leo, Leo Strauss: The Early Writings (1921–1932), ed. and trans. Zank, Michael (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002), pp. 78, 206–208 (hereafter cited as LSEW)Google Scholar.

27. Consider here McCool, Gerald A., From Unity to Pluralism: The Internal Evolution of Thomism (New York: Fordham University Press, 1989), pp. 74–80Google Scholar.

28. Persecution and the Art of Writing (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1952), pp. 9, 19Google Scholar. See also Strauss, Leo, “How to Study Medieval Philosophy,” ed. Bolotin, David, Bruell, Christopher, Pangle, Thomas L., Interpretation 23, no.3 (1996), p. 335 (hereafter cited as HSMP)Google Scholar; Philosophy and Law. Contributions to the Understanding of Maimonides and His Predecessors, trans. Adler, Eve (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995), p. 91 (hereafter cited as PL)Google Scholar.

29. Strauss, Leo, What Is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1959), p. 13 (hereafter cited as WIPP?)Google Scholar.

30. POR?, pp. 272–73Google Scholar.

31. POR?, pp.269–72Google Scholar.

32. POR?, p. 273Google Scholar.

33. POR?, p.274Google Scholar.

34. Toward the beginning of Book Five, Plato proclaims that of all the “things” man has, the soul is the most divine. The role of the legislator is to determine what honors are good and noble, as well as evil and base, for evil and base actions do not bring honor to one's soul.

35. Laws 913a, Dialogues of Plato, 4:483Google Scholar.

36. POR?, p. 274Google Scholar.

37. On this point, see, e.g., Jaffa, Harry V., The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1975), pp. 274–75Google Scholar.

38. Summa Theologiæ, vol. 29, The Old Law (Ia2æ. 98–105), trans. Bourke, David and Littledale, Arthur (Blackfriars; London: Eyre and Spottiswoode; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), p. 49Google Scholar.

39. POR?, p. 274 (emphases mine)Google Scholar.

40. NIV, p. 88 (emphases mine)Google Scholar.

41. See POR?, p. 274Google Scholar.

42. POR?, p. 275Google Scholar. On this apparent parallel between human law and divine law, cf. PL, p. 90Google Scholar.

43. POR?, p. 275Google Scholar.

44. Gen.1:28, NIV, p. 2Google Scholar; Deut.32:46–47, p. 239Google Scholar; Prov.3:18, p. 773Google Scholar; Prov.3:l, 13, pp. 772, 773Google Scholar.

45. Law and Political Theory (Ia2æ. 90–97), vol. 28, trans. Gilby, Thomas (Blackfriars; London: Eyre and Spottiswoode; McGraw-Hill, 1966), p. 43Google Scholar.

46. Dialogues of Plato, 4:196Google Scholar.

47. Complete Works of Aristotle, 2:1784Google Scholar.

48. POR?, pp. 275–76Google Scholar.

49. NIV, p. 922Google Scholar.

50. POR?, p. 276Google Scholar. Cf. Strauss, Leo, “Xenophon's Anabasis,” Interpretation 4, no.3 (1975), pp. 122, 139–40Google Scholar, and Strauss's description of the “just man” in OPS, pp. 145–46Google Scholar.

51. Nicomachean Ethics 1125a19–22, Complete Works of Aristotle, 2:1775Google Scholar.

52. Eudemian Ethics 1233b34–38, Complete Works of Aristotle, 2:1954Google Scholar.

53. POR?, p. 277Google Scholar.

54. See, e.g., 1 Sam.15:8–ll, 16:13, 18:1–4Google Scholar; 2 Sam.6:15–16, 23Google Scholar.

55. See POR?, pp. 277–78Google Scholar.

56. POR?, p.279Google Scholar.

57. See NRH, pp. 82, 84–90, 163–64Google Scholar; POR?, pp. 279–86Google Scholar; Deut.7:24–25, 12:1–3Google Scholar; Plato, Republic 532a–534aGoogle Scholar. Cf. LSPS, p.197Google Scholar; OPS, pp.187–88Google Scholar.

58. Summa Theologiae, Ia2æ q.98, art.l, reply, 29:7Google Scholar.

59. JA, p. 166Google Scholar. On Plato's doctrine of the ideas, see also Plato, Timaeus 28a–29aGoogle Scholar; Strauss, , CM, pp. 79, 92–93, 119–21Google Scholar.

60. JA, p. 166Google Scholar (in a footnote, p. 166n14, Strauss, refers to the Timaeus 40d6–41a5Google Scholar; Aristophanes, Peace 404–13Google Scholar; Deut.4:19Google Scholar).

61. Aristophanes, , Peace, ed. and trans. Sommerstein, Alan H. (Warminster, Wiltshire: Aris and Phillips; Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1985), p. 43Google Scholar.

62. NIV, p. 205Google Scholar. On the above themes and opposition, see also Orr, , Jerusalem and Athens, pp. 115–18Google Scholar.

63. JA, p. 166Google Scholar.

64. In JP, p. 373Google Scholar (lecture hereafter cited as OIG).

65. In JP, p. 267Google Scholar (essay hereafter cited as IEHC). On Strauss's observation about the Jewish-philosophic character of Cohen's book, cf. SPPP, pp. 192, 194, 205fGoogle Scholar; W1PP?, pp. 156–59, 161–62Google Scholar.

66. IEHC, p.272Google Scholar.

67. NRH, pp. 74–75Google Scholar.

68. NRH, p. 85Google Scholar.

69. First published in Hebrew, in Iyyun. Hebrew Philosophical Quarterly 5, no.l (1954): 110–26Google Scholar; reprinted in an English translation, in The Independent Journal of Philosophy 3 (1978): 111–18Google Scholar, and later reprinted as Part III of POR?, in IPP, pp. 289–310Google Scholar. Part III hereafter cited as MITP (as reprinted in IPP).

70. MITP, pp. 292–98Google Scholar. Cf. NRH, pp. 82, 84–90Google Scholar.

71. MITP, p. 302Google Scholar.

72. MITP, pp. 301–304Google Scholar.

73. MITP, p. 305Google Scholar.

74. MITP, p. 305Google Scholar.

75. MITP, p. 306Google Scholar. Cf. NRH, pp. 30–31Google Scholar.

76. MITP, pp. 306–309Google Scholar.

77. MITP, p. 309Google Scholar. Given the above discussion, I contend that while Robert Sokolowski is correct in saying that Strauss sees a fundamental divide between the life of philosophy and the life of piety, he errs by not acknowledging that Strauss called for dialogue or openness between revelation and reason. See Sokolowski, Robert, The God of Faith and Reason: Foundations of Christian Theology (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), pp. 158–63Google Scholar; see also Nicgorski, Walter, “Leo Strauss and Christianity: Reason, Politics, and Christian Belief,” Review of The God of Faith and Reason, by Sokolowski, Robert, Claremont Review of Books (Summer 1985), pp. 20–21Google Scholar.

78. MITP, p. 290Google Scholar.

79. Schall, James V., “Fides et Ratio: Approaches to a Roman Catholic Political Philosophy,” Review of Politics 62, no.1 (2000): 70–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80. See above and Strauss, Leo, “German Nihilism,” ed. Janssens, David and Tanguay, Daniel, Interpretation 26, no.3 (1999): 362Google Scholar.

81. Cf. Lampert, Laurence, Leo Strauss and Nietzsche (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 1–3, passimGoogle Scholar; Rosen, Stanley, Hermeneutics as Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 124–27Google Scholar.

82. Quoted in Gildin, Hilail, “Déjà Jew All Over Again: Dannhauser on Leo Strauss and Atheism,” Interpretation 25, no.1 (1997): 126Google Scholar.

83. Ibid., p. 127. See also Green, , Jew and Philosopher, pp. 237–39n1Google Scholar.

84. See WIPP?, p. 11Google Scholar; Schall, , “Fides et Ratio,” p. 64Google Scholar.

85. MITP, pp. 309–10Google Scholar. On faith and philosophy, Cf. Strauss, to Voegelin, , 4 June 1951, letter 39 in, Faith and Political Philosophy: The Correspondence Between Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin, ed. and trans. Emberley, Peter and Cooper, Barry (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), pp. 88–89Google Scholar.

86. Novak, David, “Philosophy and the Possibility of Revelation: A Theological Response to the Challenge of Leo Strauss,” in Leo Strauss and Judaism, ed. Novak, , p. 175Google Scholar.

87. The volume (New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1962) contains essays by Berns, Walter, Storing, Herbert J., Weinstein, Leo and Horwitz, RobertGoogle Scholar. (Strauss's epilogue hereafter cited as AE.)

88. AE, p. 322Google Scholar. See also MITP, pp. 309–10Google Scholar.

89. In On Tyranny, revised and expanded edition, including the Strauss-Kojève correspondence, ed. Gourevitch, Victor and Roth, Michael S. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 185Google Scholar (whole work hereafter cited as OT [rev.ex.]). On Kojève's statements on atheism, see his “Tyranny and Wisdom,” in OT (rev.ex.), pp. 152, 161Google Scholar; Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit assembled by Queneau, Raymond, ed. Bloom, Allan, trans. Nichols, James H. Jr, (New York: Basic Books, 1969), pp. 57, 90, 107Google Scholar. See also Gildin, , “Déjà Jew,” p. 128Google Scholar; Green, , Jew and Philosopher, pp. 166n119, 237nlGoogle Scholar.

90. OT (rev.ex.), pp. 185, 186Google Scholar.

91. Gildin, , “Déjà Jew,” p. 128Google Scholar.

92. See OT (rev.ex.), p. 186Google Scholar.

93. Gildin, , “Déjà Jew,” p. 128Google Scholar.

94. POR?, pp. 270, 287Google Scholar. Strauss does not provide a reference to Aristotle, but, Schall points out, he had in mind Metaphysics 982b29. Schall, James V., Reason, Revelation, and the Foundations of Political Philosophy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987), pp. 209–10Google Scholar. Aristotle explains that to pursue knowledge about life and the world simply for oneself “might be justly regarded as beyond human power; for in many ways human nature is in bondage, so that according to Simonides ‘God alone can have this privilege’, and it is unfitting that man should not be content to seek the knowledge that is suited to him” (Metaphysics 928b29–32, Complete Works of Aristotle, 2:1555Google Scholar).

95. NRH, p. 169Google Scholar. See also AE, p. 322Google Scholar, and cf. POR?, pp. 270, 287Google Scholar; Spinoza's Critique of Religion, trans. Sinclair, E.M. (Schocken Books, 1965; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 209, 299–300n276Google Scholar; SPPP, pp. 42–45Google Scholar; Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), p. 51Google Scholar; The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Genesis, trans. Sinclair, Elsa M. (Clarendon Press, 1936; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), pp. 74–75Google Scholar.

96. Gildin, , “Déjà Jew,” pp. 125, 127Google Scholar.

97. Originally read at a conference about Strauss, and Judaism, at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, 10 and 11 10 1993Google Scholar. Papers from the conference were published in Novak, , ed., Strauss and JudaismGoogle Scholar.

98. Dannhauser, Werner J., “Leo Strauss as Citizen and Jew,” Interpretation 17, no.3 (1990): 444Google Scholar.

99. Dannhauser, , “Athens and Jerusalem or Jerusalem and Athens?”, p. 168Google Scholar.

100. In JP, pp. 317, 319Google Scholar (lecture hereafter cited as WWRJ).

101. “A Giving of Accounts: Jacob Klein and Leo Strauss,” in JP, p. 460Google Scholar (exchange hereafter cited as GA).

102. GA, p. 458Google Scholar.

103. HSMP, p. 333Google Scholar.

104. Fradkin, Hillel, “A Word Fitly Spoken: The Interpretation of Maimonides and the Legacy of Leo Strauss,” in Leo Strauss and Judaism, ed. Novak, , p. 64Google Scholar.

105. See, e.g., POR?, p. 272Google Scholar.

106. Cf. LSEW, pp. 118–19, 202–204Google Scholar.

107. In JP, p. 414Google Scholar. See also WWRJ, pp. 319–20Google Scholar.

108. WWRJ, p. 319Google Scholar.

109. JP, pp. 141–45Google Scholar. See also NRH, pp. 7–8Google Scholar; POR?, pp. 257–59Google Scholar.

110. WWRJ, p. 320Google Scholar.

111. WWRJ, p. 320Google Scholar.

112. JP, pp. 286, 287–88Google Scholar.

113. Walsh, David, “The Reason-Revelation Tension in Strauss and Voegelin,” in Emberley, and Cooper, , Faith and Political Philosophy, p. 351Google Scholar.

114. Smith, Gregory Bruce, “Athens and Washington: Leo Strauss and the American Regime,” in Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime, ed. Deutsch, Kenneth L. and Murley, John A. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlerield, 1999), p. 110Google Scholar.

115. On the third point, see Green, , Jew and Philosopher, pp. 26–27, 167n127, 237nlGoogle Scholar.