I and Thou

A centennial edition of I and Thou, a landmark of 20th-century intellectual history and one of the most important books of Western theology and philosophy, featuring the original English translation.

Considered to be one of the most important books of Western theology since its original publication in 1923, Martin Buber’s slender volume I and Thou influenced the way theologians, philosophers, and laymen think about the meaning of the relationship between human life and God. Heavily influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Buber unites the proto-existentialist currents of modern German thought with the Judeo-Christian tradition, powerfully updating faith for modern times.

I and Thou is Martin Buber’s seminal work and the centerpiece of his groundbreaking philosophy. In it, Buber--one of the greatest Jewish minds of the twentieth century--lays out a view of the world in which human beings can enter into relationships using their innermost and whole being to form true partnerships (an I-Thou attitude). These deep forms of rapport contrast with those that sprang from the Industrial Revolution, namely the treatment of others as objects for our use (an I-It attitude). Buber goes on to demonstrate how these interhuman meetings are a reflection of the human meeting with God. For Buber, the essence of biblical religion consists in the fact that--regardless of the infinite abyss between them--a dialogue between man and God is possible.

This original English translation by Ronald Gregor Smith was prepared in the author’s presence and is considered to be the definitive edition of the book.

Walter Kaufmann is Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. Born in Germany in 1921, he graduated from Williams College in 1941, and returned to Europe with U.S. Military Intelligence during World War II. In 1947 he received his Ph.D. from Harvard and joined the Princeton faculty. He has held visiting professorships at many American universities, and Fulbright professorships at Heidelberg and at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

His books include Nietzsche, Critique of Religion and Philosophy, From Shakespeare to Existentialism, The Faith of a Heretic, Cain and Other Poems, Hegel, and Tragedy and Philosophy. Several of these books have been translated into various foreign languages.

Kaufmann’s own translations of ten of Nietzsche’s works, of Leo Baeck’s Judaism and Christianity, and of Twenty German Poets have won wide recognition. Of his verse translation of Goethe’s Faust, Stephen Spender said in The New York Times Book Review: The best translation of Faust that I have read. And the Virginia Quarterly Review said: There is little question that this is the translation of Goethe’s Faust, both in poetic beauty and in comprehension of the original.