Martin Buber's Dialogue: Discovering Who We Really Are

by Kenneth Paul Kramer, Robert C. Morgan (Foreword by)

Overview

Martin Buber, one of the twentieth century's most distinguished and creative thinkers, famously argued that the fundamental fact of human existence is person with person, and that practicing genuine dialogue is necessary for anyone who wishes to become authentically human. This book seeks to unleash and reassemble the core elements for practicing dialogue--turning and addressing, and then listening and responding. Despite what many say, the innermost growth of the self does not come in relation to one's self. Rather, attaining one's authentic human existence (one's innate self-realization) emerges again and again through genuine dialogue, through "participatory consciousness." We become authentically human in and through our relationships with others. Here's the point--instead of having dialogues, human beings mutually become dialogue with others. Individual human beings in dialogue with one another become memorable mutualities found nowhere else, opening out into the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532665776
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	08/21/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	172
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Kenneth Paul Kramer is a professor emeritus of Comparative Religious Studies at San José State University. He is the author of three other books on Martin Buber, including Martin Buber’s “I and Thou”: Practicing Living Dialogue (2003).

Kenneth Paul Kramer is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religious Studies at San Jose State University, where he taught from 1978 to 2001. He is the author of Redeeming Time: T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets (2007); Martin Buber's I and Thou: Practicing Living Dialogue (2003); Death Dreams: Unveiling Mysteries of the Unconscious Mind (1993); The Sacred Art of Dying (1988); and World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions (1986).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Kenneth Kramer in Buber’s Dialogue: Discovering Who We Really Are, invites us to the harvest of our own lives. Readers learn to open this orchard gate, step into a conversation with each and every moment, delight in the surprise of ‘just this.’ Taste how the fruit of genuine dialogue, always ripe, always life-giving, awaits you.”

—Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Author, The Gate of Our Coming and Going



“Kenneth P. Kramer’s new book on the philosopher and humanist Martin Buber is an engaging read. Buber believed in the interactions between people through dialogue and defined elements of the dialogic necessary to attain meaningful exchanges. Through his own life’s story and many anecdotes, Kramer shows how Buber shaped and influenced his life, thereby providing the reader with a portal into Buber’s thinking. The book is highly successful and how timely, coming at this crucial moment in history, when so little dialogue is present.”

—Bill Atwood, Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Cruz



“Kenneth Kramer has already written books leaning away from theory toward practice. I think of Learning through Dialogue, which I recently used for a senior seminar in humanities. But the present book goes whole hog into the realm of practice and, moreover, aims to engage Buber ‘neophytes,’ as Kramer calls certain intended readers of his book. Indeed, he confesses that at one point during its writing the task threatened to overwhelm him. In a moment of self doubt, he asked: ‘How could I ever write a book that would do justice to Buber’s brilliance on the one hand, and captivate neophytes to his dialogical technology on the other?’ I am happy to report that in this regard his book is a total success. While reading it, I continually found myself drawn out of my scholarly shell and into my personal struggle over how best to live my life.”

—Christian Jochim, San Jose State University

Editorial Reviews

"Kenneth Kramer in Buber's Dialogue: Discovering Who We Really Are, invites us to the harvest of our own lives. Readers learn to open this orchard gate, step into a conversation with each and every moment, delight in the surprise of 'just this.' Taste how the fruit of genuine dialogue, always ripe, always life-giving, awaits you."

--Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Author, The Gate of Our Coming and Going

"Kenneth P. Kramer's new book on the philosopher and humanist Martin Buber is an engaging read. Buber believed in the interactions between people through dialogue and defined elements of the dialogic necessary to attain meaningful exchanges. Through his own life's story and many anecdotes, Kramer shows how Buber shaped and influenced his life, thereby providing the reader with a portal into Buber's thinking. The book is highly successful and how timely, coming at this crucial moment in history, when so little dialogue is present."

--Bill Atwood, Professor Emeritus, UC Santa Cruz

"Kenneth Kramer has already written books leaning away from theory toward practice. I think of Learning through Dialogue, which I recently used for a senior seminar in humanities. But the present book goes whole hog into the realm of practice and, moreover, aims to engage Buber 'neophytes, ' as Kramer calls certain intended readers of his book. Indeed, he confesses that at one point during its writing the task threatened to overwhelm him. In a moment of self doubt, he asked: 'How could I ever write a book that would do justice to Buber's brilliance on the one hand, and captivate neophytes to his dialogical technology on the other?' I am happy to report that in this regard his book is a total success. While reading it, I continually found myself drawn out of my scholarly shell and into my personal struggle over how best to live my life."

--Christian Jochim, San Jose State University

From the Publisher