Time and Place:New York at Kaufman Concert Hall on May 18, 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 third lecture on The Concept of History begins with the story of Adam and Eve, which already shows that, for the Hebrew Bible, history is the result of human decisions, even if these are wrong decisions. History begins with alienation and aims at another level of unity where man is fully developed and at home in the world. According to the concept of Messianic time man is the maker of history and his own creator. Isaiah describes this new harmony as peace. Of how the times of the Messiah will be brought about Fromm differentiates between two versions: In the first the Messiah is a symbol of the new time; he appears when man is ready. In the other – apocalyptic one – the Messiah will come when man is completely dehumanized. Finally Fromm discusses the paradox of hope. – 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 (63’) is followed by Fromm’s answers (28’) 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/): 1964o-eng