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Martin Buber: Can God Be Encountered?

Martin Buber (1878-1965) is one of the key thinkers of Judaism in the 20th century. He has written a great deal about Judaism, especially the eighteenth century movement of Hasidism. Buber’s well-known book entitled I and Thou (1923) actually contains an outline of his thoughts; in this book he develops his theory on the distinction between I-thou and I-it relations. Buber's another well-know work is God's Solar Eclipse (1952). Buber maintains that we can know God only through encounter. The present writing initially puts forward a survey of Buber's thoughts, particularly the development of his ideas set out in I-Thou, considering the major factors which had a bearing on his intellectual character as well;the article proceeds to consider Buber's conception of God's solar eclipse in terms of the issue of Holocaust. Ultimately, while admiring Martin Buber's consistency of mind and his appropriation of a systematic intellectual mechanism, the author of the present writing offers a critique of his ideas, particularly his conception of God's solar eclipse.