Time and Place:New York at Kaufman Concert Hall on May 11, 1964

Abstract: The lecture series Humanism and the Hebrew Bible presents first results of Fromm’s book project You Shall Be as Gods. A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition which was published in 1966. The first lecture discusses humanism as a global philosophy about man: that every human being carries within himself all of humanity, good and bad, emphasizing the idea of the dignity of man, the idea of human freedom, the idea of the capacity of man to perfect himself in the process of individual and of historical life. The lecture underlines the contribution of humanist thinkers of the last few centuries. Then their humanistic ideas about human dignity and our capacity for tolerance, freedom, reason, and love are discussed in relation to the Bible and to Talmudic tradition. According to Fromm today’s humanism has arisen to a double threat to humanity, the threat of physical extinction by nuclear weapons and the threat that humans are transformed more and more into things. – The lecture was given by Erich Fromm on the invitation of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association at Kaufman Concert Hall. The lecture (70’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (27’) to questions from the audience.

The text of the lecture and discussion can be downloaded as a PDF file.

ID in the directory of Erich Fromm’s works (https://fromm-online.org/en/works/original-writings/): 1964m-eng