Ahead of the Curve

In their capacity as Sprachdenkern – Speech-thinkers, Rosenstock-Huessy and Rosenzweig anticipated a number of developments in philosophy, theology, and hermeneutics. Stahmer writes, “Both Rosenzweig and Rosenstock-Huessy, but most especially the latter, can now be seen to have been hermeneutical pioneers who anticipated, by many years, the work of Martin Heidegger, Rudolf Bultmann, Gerhard Ebeling, Ernst Fuchs, Martin Buber, Amos Wilder, et al. in recognizing and dealing with such matters as the philosophical and theological problems of demythologizing, problems of interpretation, speculation about the sacred potential of everyday human speech. Emphasis on the sacramental quality of language set within a Johannine framework was basic and central to Rosenstock-Huessy’s thought, and, subsequently to Rosenzweig’s, long before Karl Barth, Heidegger, and Bultmann made their principal contributions.”