Buber Martin (1878–1965), German Jewish philosopher, theologian, and political leader. Buber’s early influences include Hasidism and neo-Kantianism. Eventually he broke with the latter and became known as a leading religious existentialist. His chief philosophic works include his most famous book, Ich und du (‘I and Thou,’ 1923); Moses (1946); Between Man and Man (1947); and Eclipse of God (1952).
The crux of Buber’s thought is his conception of two primary relationships: I-Thou and I-It. I- Thou is characterized by openness, reciprocity, and a deep sense of personal involvement. The I confronts its Thou not as something to be studied, measured, or manipulated, but as a unique presence that responds to the I in its individuality. I-It is characterized by the tendency to treat something as an impersonal object governed by causal, social, or economic forces. Buber rejects the idea that people are isolated, autonomous agents operating according to abstract rules. Instead, reality arises between agents as they encounter and transform each other. In a word, reality is dialogical. Buber describes God as the ultimate Thou, the Thou who can never become an It. Thus God is reached not by inference but by a willingness to respond to the concrete reality of the divine presence.
See also EXISTENTIALISM , JEWISH PHILOSO- PH. K.See. Buchmanism, also called the Moral Rearmament Movement, a non-creedal international movement that sought to bring about universal brotherhood through a commitment to an objectivist moral system derived largely from the Gospels. It was founded by Frank Buchman (1878–1961), an American Lutheran minister who resigned from his church in 1908 in order to expand his ministry. To promote the movement, Buchman founded the Oxford Group at Oxford University in 1921. L.P.P.