Review of Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel:



In his famous march to Selma, Alabama there is a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the frontline linked arm-in-arm with Ralph Abernathy.  One person down to King’s left is the social activist and eminent Jewish theologian and philosopher, Abraham Joshua Heschel.   Heschel was a very prominent figure in both the Civil Rights and the Anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s and 70s.  In the aftermath of Selma, he said, “I felt my legs praying.”  Of his involvement in the anti-war movement Heschel wrote, “To speak of God and remain silent on Vietnam is blasphemous.”   For Heschel politics and social concerns were intimately linked to theology.   Belief in God was inconceivable without concern for the pinnacle of His creation, mankind.  This is evident from two of his most famous books, Man’s Quest for God and God in Search for Man.   Both of which I highly recommend.
But if you want to just sample the incredible depth of Heschel’s thought about all things moral and spiritual, you should take a gander at Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity which was edited by his daughter, Susannah Heschel.  Drawing upon all his writings, books, articles, and lectures, she brings together the crème de la crème that allows the reader to savor her father’s wisdom without having to plow through an entire book.  Scan the table of contents.  When you light upon a title that pricks your interest, read it, reflect on it, perhaps re-read it, and then repeat this process until you have covered them all.  Here are some of the pearls of great price that I still reflect upon from time to time:
Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then.  It is rather like an established residence for the innermost self….For the soul, home is where prayer is.
Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.
There are no proofs for the existence of the God of Israel.  There are only witnesses.
The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) records God’s “mighty acts” in history.  What is overlooked is that on every page of the Bible we come upon God’s hoping and waiting for man’s mighty acts.
Different are the languages of prayer, but the tears are the same.
Man’s most precious thought is God, but God’s most precious thought is man.  A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought….
I could go on and on, but that would be unfair to you.  Read this collection from Heschel’s writings.  Find your own pearls of great price.  Reflect on them, and then see how they might inform your own life.
Reviewed by Richard Dick, Library Assistant, O’Kelly Memorial Library


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