Heschel and the Relevance of Religion

Driving up to Lompoc this morning I listened to Krista Tippett’s interview with Arnold Eisen, Chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary, about the legacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. I will confess to not have read Heschel’s definitive work on the prophets, but the name and the legacy remain powerful.

As the conversation began Eisen referred to a statement made by Heschel in his book God in Search of Man. Now think about that title – we usually think that it is the human duty to search for God, but according to this title it is God who is doing the searching. But, now for the quote:

"It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined, not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid."

That is a statement that should be troubling – our problems are not imposed on us they are rooted in our own actions (or lack there of). As Eisen spoke of Heschel I learned of a man I didn’t really know, a man who joined Martin Luther King, Jr., first in advocating for Civil Rights and then later in opposition to the War in Vietnam. He was a man who was deeply learned, and yet he understood the need to act in society.

As we ponder the “attacks” on religion made by the Harris’s and Dawkins’s of the world, Heschel’s words should be considered. As uncomfortable as those attacks might be, we are our worst enemy. If religion is perceived to be irrelevant and, worse, insipid, we have ourselves alone to blame. May Heschel’s words open our hearts to receive the call of God and reach out welcome those seeking to know God.