ABSTRACT
Gershom Scholem, in his study of the messianic idea in Judaism, made a similar distinction between restorative and Utopian ideas of messianism. The restorative type of future salvation rooted in the Christian millenarian idea of Christ’s second coming refers, according to Scholem, to a Chilliastic reconstruction of a past that has already existed. While the idea that some psychological theories are embedded in patricidal of filicidal conceptions is no novelty, the theory that their origin may be traced to particular philosophies of history might have far-reaching significance. The most obvious collective patricidal or genocidal example that comes to mind is the Hegelian attitude toward the antidialectic periodic revival of Jewish nationality. Both Nachman Krochmal and Franz Rosenzweig attempted to reconcile Jewish self-renewal with history by utilizing, though in different ways, the concept of infinity.
