Heinrich (Heinz) Walter Cassirer (9 August 1903 – 20 February 1979) was a

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...

ian philosopher, son of a famous German philosopher,

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. ...

. Being

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

s, the Cassirer family fled the Nazis in the 1930s. As a refugee scholar, Heinz went to

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

working with Professor H. J. Paton, who persuaded him to write a book on

's third Critique, the ''

Critique of Judgment The ''Critique of Judgment'' (german: Kritik der Urteilskraft), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique," the ''Critique o ...

''. Following Paton, he moved to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, lecturing at Corpus Christi College, where his students included

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. He ...

(Weitzman: 1999). He returned to the University of Glasgow in 1946, having been appointed to a permanent lectureship, and remained there until 1960 when he withdrew to focus on newfound biblical interests. He was a noted scholar on the thought of Kant. He thought highly of Karl Barth's understanding of Kant. Cassirer, a "translator and interpreter of Kant, is reliably reported to have asked, ‘Why is it that this Swiss theologian understands Kant far better than any philosopher I have come across?’" (Gunton 2002: xvi). While at Glasgow, his observations of society in Scotland led him to speak of "'Highland ravings' - the obsessive clinging on to what is wholly illusory" (Weitzman 1997: 30). As a middle-aged adult, reading the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

for the first time, Cassirer was struck by the writings of St. Paul in relation to

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

. As he studied, he committed himself to the

Christian faith Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global populati ...

and was baptized in the

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

in 1955. He produced a translation of the

from the Greek sources, titled '' God's New Covenant: A New Testament Translation''. His translation is also noted for its formal language. Below is a sample passage, Matthew 7:24-25. Cassirer's translation efforts began with a topic-based collation of Paul's letters, divided into forty categories. This work went through several iterations and a list of the category headings is printed at the end of ''God's New Covenant: A New Testament Translation'' (pp. 493–494). In the final year of his life, Cassirer also completed a translation of Sophocles' last play, ''

Oedipus at Colonus ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; grc, Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ, ''Oidipous epi Kolōnōi'') is the last of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's ...

''. This work and the Categories are both available in digital form as a result of work undertaken at the University of Sheffield; an audio version of the Sophocles was also recorded and compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Writings by Heinz Cassirer

* 1927. 'Des Nicolaus Cusanus Schrift vom Geist' i.e. a German translation of

Nicolas of Cusa Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 11 August 1464), also referred to as Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus (), was a German Catholic cardinal, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renai ...

's ''de Mente'', included as an appendix to E. Cassirer, ''Individuum und Kosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance''. Leipzig & Berlin: Studien der Bibliothek Warburg. * 1932. ''Aristoteles' Schrift "Von der Seele" und ihre Stellung innerhalb der aristotelischen Philosophie''. J.C.B. Mohr: Tubingen. * 1938. ''A commentary on Kant's Critique of Judgment''. London: Methuen. * 1954. ''Kant's First Critique''. Muirhead Library of Philosophy. London: Allen and Unwin. * 1989. ''God's New Covenant: A New Testament Translation''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. * 1988. ''Grace and Law: St. Paul, Kant, and the Hebrew Prophets''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. * 1998. ''

Critique of Practical Reason The ''Critique of Practical Reason'' (german: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) is the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, published in 1788. It follows on from Kant's first critique, the '' Critique of Pure Reason'' and deals with his mo ...

''. Immanuel Kant. A new translation by H. W. Cassirer. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press. (Edited by R. Weitzman and G.H. King.) *2021. ''H.W. Cassirer: The Digital Collection''. Ed. I. Hine. University of Sheffield. www.cassirer.org

References

* Chamberlin, William. 1991. ''Catalogue of English Bible Translations: A Classified Bibliography of Versions and Editions Including Books, Parts, and Old and New Testament Apocrypha''. Greenwood Press. * Gunton, Colin. 2002. Introduction to ''Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: its background and history'' by Karl Barth. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. * Paul, William. 2003. ''English Language Bible Translators''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company. * Weitzman, Ronald. 1997. MacMillan's 'Inés de Castro' at the Edinburgh Festival. ''Tempo'' No. 199: 29-32. * Weitzman, Ronald. 1999. Letter to J. Janet (research assistant to Murdoch's biographer, Peter Conradi). Copy held at Kingston University Archives, ref. KUAS6/2/7/3. See also mentions in Conradi, ''Iris Murdoch: a life: the authorized biography'' (2001).

External links

* http://genealogy.meta-studies.net/ZDocs/Stories/stories02_2.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Cassirer, Heinz 1903 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century translators Anglican biblical scholars Continental philosophers Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism German Anglicans Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Jewish philosophers Jewish translators of the Bible Kantian philosophers Translators of the Bible into English